In the battle for Downing Street, only the most eyecatching political policies are given a chance to shine, and insulating Britain’s draughty homes seldom makes the grade.
It would be a challenge for any policy commentator to find a subject with less political star power than the polystyrene, wood fibre and foam that makes up the home insulation so desperately needed across the UK.
But a growing number of experts have warned that it is no exaggeration to say that Britain faces an insulation crisis that requires the next government to prioritise the problem as a national infrastructure emergency.
The UK’s housing stock is some of the least efficient in Europe and means that millions of families are living in fuel poverty – unable to pay their energy bills and piling pressure on health services as their mental and physical wellbeing succumbs to the cold and damp.
Those houses that can be insulated largely are. Those that can’t be can’t be.
Sure, there’s some tidying up at the margins that can be done, there always is. But without entirely rebuilding the whole housing stock – and it would be rebuild, knock down and start again rebuild – we’ve pretty much done what can be done.
Tosser.
He makes another mistake. Houses that are draughty can be fixed by draught proofing not insulation. Insulation won’t be of much use in a draughty house. Regulations on ensuring windows insulation is high make draught proofing poor existing windows much more expensive.
Draughts mean forced air changes and are in general much worse than losses through conduction
(yes there are limits you need some ventilation to avoid mould, if you use indoor fires etc though that can managed by air circulation with heat recovery)
In an old house, insulation must be carefully designed. It is easy to cause dampness by making the dew point happen within the fabric of the wall. Dry rot soon follows. Beware of cowboys.
“Those houses that can be insulated largely are. Those that can’t be can’t be.”
And many of those that have been have been f*cked up by the process. The gap in a cavity wall was there for a purpose, filling it with some sort of insulating material is going to cause trouble in many cases.
Central government plans to solve problem. What could possibly go wrong?
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-10390579/Botched-cavity-wall-insulation-ruining-homes-causing-damp-mould.html
The definition of insanity etc…….
It’s a “crisis”, experts (spelled ACTIVISTS) have warned. Did this in Australia and turned homes into mushroom farms. Insulation payback time? 20 years: No thanks. Someone else will pay: Go ahead.
Grenfell Tower was insulated to keep the bills down and the residents toasty, I recall.
“Britain’s home insulation efforts have collapsed in recent years. After reaching a peak in 2012 of 2.3m upgrades, the government slashed efficiency programmes in the same year, leading to a slump in home upgrades. By 2021, annual installations were 96% lower, at fewer than 100,000.”
Because we ran out of homes to do. As this report says, by 2013, 99% of homes that could be easily done were done.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c19d040f0b61a825d674b/statistical_release_estimates_home_insulation_levels_gb_july_13.pdf
“The UK’s housing stock is some of the least efficient in Europe and means that millions of families are living in fuel poverty – unable to pay their energy bills and piling pressure on health services as their mental and physical wellbeing succumbs to the cold and damp.”
This sounds like total bollocks to me. Most poorer families are living in towns, in modern housing, in terraces and flats. Which are probably about as good as they’ll be.
That doesn’t add up. You can do loft insulation and cavity wall for easy homes for a grand each, but we don’t have even half a million of those left. Most of what isn’t sorted out is homes that are going to cost £10K+ each to sort out.
We did our attic shortly after we bought the house. It was subsidised at the time.
We don’t do extensive draught-proofing because we don’t want to live in the humid, stuffy, overheated boxes that many people seem to prefer, with their air full of God-knows-what vapours emitted by this and that.
My Dad had his house insulated in the 1980s. I insulated my house in the 1990s. I insulated my flat in the 2000s. I was on the implementation board that insulated all our council houses in the 2000s and also on a local Housing Association which did all theirs in the 2000s. To a close approximation, THEY HAVE ALL BEEN DONE.
Because we ran out of homes to do.
I get that with lots of the jobs I do.
“So, you did Channel 5 retuning in 1997, why aren’t you still doing it?” – ‘cos we ran out of houses to do.
“So, you did Windows 7 roll-out in 2014, why aren’t you still doing it?” – ‘cos we ran out of computers to do.
@Chris by ‘air circulation with heat recovery’ you mean an MVHR system, I assume. I doubt there are very many people bothered by the price of energy willing to swallow that retrofit cost.
Universal loft insulation has been responsible for a crash in the population in house sparrows in the UK
This sounds like BS.
Wouldn’t the houses that aren’t yet insulated likely to be designated historic so you can’t change them?
These aren’t usually lived in by poor people.
“The UK’s housing stock is some of the least efficient in Europe!..”
Least efficient at what?
Someone who hasn’t been to Europe, just read how “efficient” Scandinavian houses are, and doesn’t understand that the climate varies around Europe so houses are built to take that into account.
Much of European housing is designed to keep interiors cool not warm, elsewhere long very cold Winters mean houses designed to keep interiors very warm. Spanish houses aren’t ‘efficient’ when it comes to keeping heat in.
Great Britain – an island – having a maritime, temperate climate has housing designed with frequent rain, damp atmosphere in mind and temperatures that on average are neither too hot nor too cold.
Therefore of great importance in British housing is ventilation of the interior and prevention of damp penetration by having double skinned brick construction with an air gap and ventilation bricks, to prevent wet rot, condensation, mould growth. That means warm air must circulate through the interior and vent to the outside, not recirculate inside.
If you have air-con in a car on a damp day, put it on recirculating and watch the windows mist up.
The idiocy is to change the characteristics of property to meet ideological nonsense instead of meteorological conditions.
It is also explicit confirmation that heat pumps are not as efficient as gas-boilers, and more expensive to operate to try and be a match.
If, thanks to ‘Global Heating’, the UK is going to enjoy a Mediterranean climate in the future, then surely insulating houses against the cold and damp is a waste of money?
“The UK’s housing stock is some of the least efficient in Europe!..”
“Some of the least” doing sterling work there.
Spain (next to none of the homes are insulated here), Portugal, much of southern France, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey the Balkans… FFS! Go & look at the countries.
@Wonky Moral Compass Fair, I meant it more as a way of removing the technical limit on draught proofing.
That said can be surprisingly cost effective and often overlooked as a separate option in the UK , but increasingly useful in summer as well as winter. The single room and decentralised ones can also be installed gradually or where house ducting is not viable. If used in reasonably air tight places with some thermal mass around can be incredibly cost effective.
Just that so many discussions miss the fact that energy poverty is often far more related to draughts than a lack insulation and all the wall and roof insulation in the world won’t help old draughty windows and doors.
Dearieme
As every nudist/naturist says: ventilation, ventilation, ventilation…
“Wouldn’t the houses that aren’t yet insulated likely to be designated historic so you can’t change them?”
I’m just renovating the old farmhouse on my farm, which is listed. I was speaking to a listed building heritage consultant the other day, and asked him when they are going to allow double glazing in listed buildings and he said ‘Probably never, because the listed building people in government don’t like it’. Thats how serious the State is about climate change.
Dearieme @ 11.41
So you don’t have a house full of Yankee Candles and fragrance infusers?!
Jim
It depends on the local planning officer. Some will. Some won’t.
Our new(ish) PO had allowed double glazing for the listed building next door, but specified the brand and colour. It is only a problem if some karen complains up the chain
Personally I think that my neighbours have bought themselves a whole heap of trouble as the new windows are unvented and will cause damp.
In my childhood our house was heated by two coal fires, one of which also heated the water. It must have been during my time at university, or shortly after, that my parents installed off-peak electrical storage heaters.
I suspect they felt they were getting a bit old for carrying buckets of coal around.
Dearieme – can’t beat a nice coal fire in the winter. Nice quality anthracite with the dancing blue flames, giving off a generous warmth. It’s an underappreciated luxury, and we should bring back King Coal.
There’s no such thing as “fuel poverty”. Money is fungible. You can be in poverty if you lack enough money, but that is poverty with regard to everything. If you’re not in poverty with regard to things such as food and clothing, you cannot then be in poverty with regard to something else such as fuel.
@John B, June 23, 2024 at 1:16 pm
Spot on. We’re not Europe
@Jonathan, June 23, 2024 at 2:12 pm
Excellent
More to the point, this new ‘fuel poverty’ is the deliberate, engineered result of government energy policy. Nothing to do with insulation. Houses didn’t suddenly become uninsulated.