CIOB responds to Climate Change Committee's Sixth Carbon Budget

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has responded to the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) Sixth Carbon Budget.

The Sixth Carbon Budget is clear in its advice to Government that buildings are a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and the Balanced Net Zero Pathway sets out clear timetables for standards to make all buildings energy efficient and ultimately low-carbon.

Upgrading the UK’s existing building stock through retrofitting is vital to achieving the net zero target and will deliver a range of wider benefits including improved comfort and health for end users, as well as reducing the financial burdens of poor housing on the NHS. The Budget rightly recognises this, and sets out a £55 billion household energy efficiency programme with 15 million households to receive main insulation measures and a further 8 million to benefit from draught-proofing.

The Climate Change Committee notes that for the construction industry, the Government must move from the current piecemeal approach to a comprehensive transition support framework. Historically, a lack of confidence in long-term policy direction has impeded the construction industry’s ability to invest in low carbon technologies and skills, and reinforced a corrosive lowest-cost procurement model which fails to account for environmental outcomes.

The CIOB has long been calling on the Government to make a national retrofit plan a key infrastructure priority and core element of the Industrial Strategy. This will provide a clear direction of travel for the construction industry and the certainty the private sector needs to invest in improving the energy efficiency of our built environment.

The CCC’s Sixth Carbon Budget can be accessed here: https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/sixth-carbon-budget/