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Housing associations concerned by cut in energy efficiency target

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Housing associations are dismayed at UK Government proposals to cut back on investment in energy efficiency.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced the target for the energy company obligation (ECO) scheme – which requires energy companies to invest in energy savings measures like insulation – will be cut back by a third.

The majority of respondents (68%) to a government consultation objected to the reduction mainly due to fears it would lead to less investment in hard-to-treat homes such as stone tenements and multi-storey flats.

However, the government insists “it is right that the impact of environmental programmes on consumer energy bills should be reduced”.

As energy bills shot up last winter, utility companies partly blamed the money they had to invest in energy efficiency that was added to people’s bills.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) said it was extremely concerned that ECO targets were being reduced by a third and the fund can now support lower cost measures such as cavity wall insulation.

SFHA policy manager David Stewart said: “At a time when fuel poverty levels are rising due to above inflation fuel price rises, and when climate change is a matter that requires immediate action, cutting funding for energy efficiency measures is short sighted.

“While housing associations in Scotland have a strong track record in energy efficiency, with the most energy efficiency homes in Scotland, they need support to tackle hard-to-treat homes.”

He added: “The proposed changes to ECO will drastically reduce investment in these homes – indeed a number of housing associations have had to scrap significant schemes that would have cut fuel poverty while creating and maintaining vital construction jobs.”

A DECC spokesman said: “As a direct result of changes to the ECO scheme, we are reducing the costs of the scheme for suppliers in order that this reduces the impact on consumer bills. All the major energy suppliers have publicly committed to reduce consumer bills by around £30 to £35.”