Energy Systems Catapult set out our current thinking on policies for decarbonising buildings over the next two decades in ‘Six steps to zero carbon buildings’ and the accompanying ‘Towards an enduring policy framework to decarbonise buildings’.

This is the first in six policy briefs providing further detail on each of the six steps.

Key points

This brief sets out the case for funding a new wave of ‘place-based low carbon building programmes’ to drive early deployment of building decarbonisation solutions (including energy efficiency, fabric improvements and low carbon heating) at scale. Our vision of place-based low carbon programmes:

• Led by local and regional authorities, alongside consortia of private sector partners and Local Enterprise Partnerships
• Funded by a combination of post-Brexit regional funding (the ‘Shared Prosperity Fund’ proposal), aligning existing sources (e.g. ECO) and leveraged private sector contributions
• Co-ordinated place-based targeted investment at scale (£10’s of million) in energy efficiency, fabric improvement/retrofits, low carbon heating technologies, regional supply chain improvement and skills development
• National guidelines and quality control set by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), but with space for regional leadership, innovation and specification (ideally informed by robust local area energy planning).

We believe, along with a number of other stakeholders, that such place-based programmes can play a key role in building supply chains and early deployment of integrated solutions, as well as driving post-COVID19 economic stimulus, skills development and job creation across all regions.