Ministers are resisting calls to reduce VAT on green home improvements, despite pleas from MPs and builders, as they prepare to set out a national strategy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from home heating. Heating Britain’s homes accounts for about 14% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and that number has barely budged in the past decade. This year, ministers scrapped the green homes grant, a scheme to subsidise insulation and low-carbon heating systems, after only six months. Ed Matthew, the campaigns director of the thinktank E3G, said the government must take a series of measures to make Britain’s homes greener, including introducing a new insulation programme, tax breaks such as stamp duty relief for green homes, and green mortgages. The only way to make this happen is to roll out a major green homes infrastructure programme and provide generous grants and tax breaks, to make it affordable for everyone.

Source: The Guardian July 14, 2021 06:00 UTC