Lloyds Banking Group, a UK based financial services group, has released the first Housing Stocktake 2023 report sharing insights on “the stalling efforts to decarbonize the UK’s housing stock.”
In the UK, homes are one of the highest emitting sectors, “with the 28 million residential properties accounting for 16% of the UK’s total carbon missions.”
The report reveals that while nearly six in ten (57%) homeowners “think it’s important to make their property ‘net zero ready’ by 2035, over two-thirds (69%) have not taken any action to make improvements in the last five years.”
Ahead of COP28, the research report reveals shortcomings “across the sector and the challenges many homeowners face to make their homes net zero ready by 2035.”
The Housing Stocktake 2023 report reveals “that cost is the biggest barrier for change for homeowners with just one in five (20%) homeowners able to pay for the steps needed to ensure their home is ‘net zero ready’ by 2035.”
The findings highlight that “nearly half (49%) of UK homeowners are put off by prohibitive high initial costs and believe that there is a lack of financial support available. Other barriers for change include not knowing where to start (27%) or the inconvenience and hassle of building work (22%).”
However, homeowners who have been “able to invest in their property are already seeing the benefits. Positively, nearly all UK homeowners (96%) who have made changes to make their homes more ecofriendly are pleased with the results and are strong advocates for others to invest.”
Three quarters (73%) of homeowners who “have undertaken retrofit work said their installation had performed at least as well as expected, with half (50%) stating the upgrades have performed even better than expected.”
Encouragingly, over eight in ten (81%) “would recommend retrofit works to friends or family, claiming the main benefits are their homes are now warmer (77%) and cheaper to run (64%).”
Despite these findings, the report reveals “that there is still a reluctance by many to make changes. One in four UK homeowners never expect to move away from oil or gas fired heating in their lifetime, and nearly half (46%) do not know the EPC rating of their property.”
Landlords demonstrate a much greater awareness of “the ways to improve the energy efficiency of their rental properties.”
The report highlights that government legislation “has meant that over eight in ten (84%) landlords have either considered or have taken action to improve energy efficiency of their properties in the last five years, including installing battery storage, solar panels or heat pumps. This is compared with just over a quarter (27%) of homeowners.”
However, recent policy changes risk a halt in the progress landlords have made.
Following the Government’s recent decision to stop plans “requiring all rental properties to meet a minimum EPC rating of C by 2028, nearly over four in ten (42%) landlords have now cancelled plans to invest in energy efficiency measures.”
Now over half (53%) of UK landlords say they “are less likely to invest in energy efficient changes in the future.”
There is a clear appetite for more “support from the banking sector, in terms of finance, knowledge and advice.”
Seven in ten (68%) homeowners and nine in ten (87%) landlords “want some form of support from their bank or mortgage provider to get their home net-zero ready.”
For homeowners under the age of 35, “nearly one third (30%) are specifically looking for their bank to provide them with advice on how to make the changes and which retrofit works would benefit their property the most.”