Whatever happened to Lord Cameron’s pledge on efficiency?

When Prime Minister, Lord Cameron pledged to make Britain the most energy-efficient nation in Europe. Rishi Sunak should heed his words.

Britain will become the “most energy efficient nation in Europe.”

Speaking at the Royal Society, this unambiguous pledge was made by one of the most senior members of the Sunak Government.

He continued: “In a race for limited resources, it is the energy efficient that will win the race…To those who say we just can’t afford to prioritise the green energy efficiency agenda now, my view is: we can’t afford not to.”

I am quoting directly from a speech given by the present Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron. I was one of an audience of 150 guests, mostly drawn from private industry, plus many representatives of the national media.

We had been brought together for the formal launch of the Government’s Energy Efficiency Deployment Office. Cameron called upon the Energy Efficiency Minister to “bring together everything we are doing into one coherent strategy, to make Britain the most energy-efficient nation in Europe.”

He also told his audience: “I want you to help. It is a shared endeavour. It cannot be done by government alone. You are the companies and contractors that can develop Britain’s expertise in energy-efficient technology and techniques. It is the businesses that are best insulated from energy price shocks that will be the most successful.”

Similarly, “consumers who are least vulnerable to energy prices are those whose household bills will be the lowest, and who can be most confident about their future.”

Responding to a question from The Daily Telegraph, he acknowledged there had been a debate within his party about costs to consumers in the short term, and subsidies to help emerging technologies get off the ground. But he stated: “Surely we have settled that debate? We can now go to international investors offering certainty.”

The sharp-eyed among my readers may have spotted that, quite possibly, this was not a speech that would naturally be given by a Foreign Secretary – although to be fair everything said would undoubtedly oil the wheels of international diplomacy.

When he delivered this speech, David Cameron was the UK Prime Minister. That was almost 11 years ago, on 4 February 2013. It was billed at the time as his first speech as Prime Minister exclusively addressing environmental issues.

What has happened subsequently to this drive, that his Coalition Government of 2010 to 2015 routinely described as the “first energy priority?”

The Government in which Lord Cameron now serves has entirely deprioritised his ambition to promote greater investment in energy efficiency.

That new Energy Efficiency Deployment Office was quietly folded in 2015. There is no longer a Minister of State who holds the title of Energy Efficiency Minister.

Minimum building regulations and energy standards for new buildings have not progressed in England beyond those already agreed back then – although they have in both Scotland and Wales.

The specialist English programme, Warm Front, designed “to eliminate fuel poverty by 2016,” was unceremoniously axed – although all three devolved nations have continued with their equivalents. In consequence, the number of households in fuel poverty has nearly tripled.

The 2011 Energy Act had authorised setting minimum energy standards for privately rented properties, beginning in 2018. Subsequently Cameron’s successor-but-four Sunak has intervened, vowing never to improve these standards for homes. The accompanying Landlords Energy Saving Tax Allowance has been scrapped.

Plummeting insulation
According to the official Climate Change Committee, the amount of insulation being installed in homes has dropped by over 90 per cent since 2013.

Worse. As fuel prices soared internationally, a new government White Paper on energy security was published with great fanfare. The UK energy security White Paper ran to 137 pages. But nonetheless failed to include any acknowledgment at all of any strategic role that energy efficiency could, let alone should, play in delivering greater energy security.

Other governments throughout Europe also initiated similar policy developments. Without exception, these emphasised strongly the role that reducing wasteful consumption could play in delivering energy security. This led to overall reductions across the European Union in gas consumption of 19.3 per cent.

In contrast, the UK government managed a minimal drop of 1 per cent in gas consumption last year. The International Monetary Fund had specifically warned that UK households were more exposed to the energy price crisis than any others in Western Europe, due to the nation’s energy inefficient buildings. As Cameron stated back in 2013
“consumers who are least vulnerable to energy prices are those whose household bills will be the lowest, and who can be most confident about their future.”

Lord Cameron’s concluding words in his seminal Royal Society speech do surely need to be heeded by his successor, Rishi Sunak. “We can do the right thing for our planet and, just as important, do the right thing for our economy too. We can make Britain a global showcase for green innovation
and energy efficiency.” ■

Andrew Warren
Chairman of the British Energy Efficiency Federation