Retrofitting homes in London is a pipe dream without proper support

The Mayor of London has an ambitious target to make London a zero carbon city by 2030. One of the ways to meet this goal is to decarbonise all of London’s 3.5 million homes by upgrading and retrofitting – improving existing homes for high energy efficiency.

The London Assembly Housing Committee has been investigating the operational, financial and physical challenges of retrofitting in London. The Committee has also investigated the energy efficiency initiatives already established by the Mayor.

Today, the Committee has written letters to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the Secretary of State, The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, with its recommendations on retrofitting homes in London.

Some of the recommendations are:

1. The Government should ensure London should get a fair share of all retrofit funding or sufficient powers to raise finance itself, and that the Mayor should lobby for this.
2. The Government should raise the landlord cost cap to £10,000 to increase the extent of works private sector landlords are undertaking to meet mandatory minimum energy efficiency standards.
3. The Government should ensure that cladding remediation does not negatively impact on retrofitting work and could potentially enable both areas of work to be carried out at the same time.
4. The Mayor should bring together private sector landlords and tenants to look at barriers to retrofit and the ways in which government or local government action could overcome them.

Chair of the London Assembly Housing Committee, Sian Berry AM, said:

“We have a responsibility to do everything we can to make Londoners’ homes zero carbon and we can’t ignore our 3.5 million existing homes; these account for a third of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions alone. A full upgrade to zero carbon standards is an enormous task that will require political and financial support if the Mayor is to meet his 2030 carbon target.

“The Government must commit either to fully funding London’s ambition for zero carbon homes or giving us the powers to raise our own finance. In turn, the Mayor must work with private sector landlords and tenants to find and overcome any barriers to retrofitting.

“The world is in a race against time to fight climate change, and action on existing homes can no longer be put off or tackled without proper commitment from our leaders. London’s future generations need action from us right now to save them from the perils of the climate crisis.”