Gillian Charlesworth, CEO, Building Research Establishment, responds to the Spring Budget:

“The Spring Budget saw some promising announcements made by the Chancellor in terms of driving energy efficiency in local areas and business.

“Granting further powers to local leaders, such as through the new agreements with Greater Manchester and West Midlands Combined Authorities, will be crucial in delivering improvements across housing and achieving net zero in local areas. We have long been an advocate of devolution to ensure that local mayors and authorities have the resources and funding they need to deliver positive outcomes for their communities – and today’s announcement is a welcome one.

“Extending the VAT relief scheme for energy saving materials is similarly promising, ensuring that households can utilise a wider range of technologies as part of the initiative to support Britain’s green transition. We hope to see this come to fruition following the call for evidence.

“Furthermore, extending the Climate Change Agreement scheme to drive energy efficiency across industry and accelerating investment in infrastructure projects through the UK Infrastructure Bank will be key in supporting business and infrastructure projects to tackle climate change head-on.

“While these announcements are welcome, we are yet to see concrete detail on how the Energy Efficiency Taskforce – announced at last year’s Autumn Statement – will work to accelerate the UK’s net zero agenda, and how the Government plans to reduce energy demand across domestic and commercial buildings.

Decarbonising our building stock needs to form a core part of the green transition, to bring energy prices down significantly and bolster the efficiency of our buildings. To this end, maintaining funding for our net zero commitments is imperative, and we are disappointed that this detail was lacking in the Chancellor’s statement today.”