The government's energy efficiency taskforce, which was only formed in March this year with the aim of reducing the UK's energy use by 15% by 2030, has been scrapped after members met only four times.
The group which was overseeing an initiative to insulate homes and upgrade boilers was announced by the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt in his Autumn statement last year as part of plans to boost investment in energy efficiency.
It outlined a new approach to achieving net zero and was designed for new private rental properties to have at least an Energy Performance Certificate rating of C by 2025 and all Registered Providers of Social Housing by 2028.
In a speech from Downing Street the Prime Minister scrapped the plan saying that energy efficiency is "crucial to making our homes cheaper to heat", but that "under current plans, some property owners would have been forced to make expensive upgrades in just two years' time". So, he announced, the plans will be scrapped and while the government will continue to subsidise energy efficiency, they will "never force any household to do it" he said.
The Prime Minister also announced a 50% increase in grant funding through the government's boiler upgrade scheme and gave more time to transition from gas boilers to heat pumps as well as a delay on banning the sale of diesel and petrol cars.
Rishi Sunak said that the government remains committed to net zero by 2050 but are doing so in a "better and more proportionate way". The Prime Minister denied that he was reneging on key pledges on climate change and said he was not abandoning any of the targets and commitments.
