About £5bn more spent than if rules for low-carbon new-builds had not been scrapped in 2016, ECIU thinktank finds

People living in newly built homes are being hit with energy bills that are nearly £1,000 a year higher than need be because of the poor standards to which they have been constructed.

Occupants of homes built in the past seven years have paid about £5bn more in energy bills than they would have if regulations requiring new homes to be low-carbon had not been scrapped in 2016, according to analysis seen by the Guardian.

Equipping new homes with heat pumps, solar panels and high-grade insulation at the time of construction would have cost between £5,000 and £8,500 for most of the period since 2016. Housebuilders, however, have long claimed building to such standards would be prohibitively expensive.

Instead, most new homes have been built to lower standards of insulation, and with gas boilers instead of heat pumps. About six out of 10 new homes are still being built without solar panels. While the government has recently confirmed new regulations are likely to require renewable energy generation to be incorporated in most new homes, which is likely to mean solar panels in most cases, there are still questions over whether an adequate number of panels will be mandated.

Read the full article here