Monthly Archives: June 2012

20 June 2012: A quick update on progress under the Mayor’s home energy efficiency retrofit programme, RE:NEW:

• The Mayor recently reported that the 67,568 homes have been treated under the RE:NEW programme to date.
• The overall ambition for RE:NEW is set out in Policy 6 of the Mayor’s Climate Change Mitigation and Energy Strategy which states that “The Mayor will work with partners to use public funds to develop commercial models that catalyse markets to offer appropriate whole-house retrofitting of energy efficiency, energy supply, and water efficiency measures to 1.2 million existing homes in London by 2015, and all homes in London by 2030.” DECC has recently pointed out in its latest Green Deal projections paper, that this number  “is equivalent to 100% of the total number of homes expected to be retro fitted in the national Green Deal”
• The Climate Change Mitigation and Energy Strategy also states that “The Mayor’s ambition is for energy and water efficiency measures to be installed in 200,000 homes by the end of 2012 across London’s energy efficiency programmes.” [p128]
• In August 2011, the Mayor set an  interim 55,000 homes target to be delivered under RE:NEW by March 2012, which was achieved ahead of the May 2012 election
• In February 2012, the Mayor’s then environment advisor Kulveer Ranger outlined to the London Assembly’s Environment Committee the Mayor’s longer term ambitions for RE:NEW and that achieving the 200,000 homes “was always subject to the Green Deal helping to make that happen” and that the “figure , going forward, is subject to what happens with the Green Deal. We know the Green Deal timetable is slipping somewhat and it is not where we originally thought it was going to come in so we have to look at that figure and see what we can do. I am in discussion with Government right now, with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), with Ministers there, to say, ‚What do we do to ensure that we can continue more homes being retrofitted while we wait for the Green Deal to come along”
• The Mayor’s manifesto in the run-up to the May 2012 election introduced a new pledge, stating “By the end of March, 55,000 homes had been helped… I will continue this drive by extending the programme to retrofit a further 20,000 homes through RE:NEW, with a further £3 million from the GLA budget. I will prioritise households over the age of 60 for the scheme” – which appears to suggest that 20,000 more households – over the 55,000 interim target – will be retrofitted through the GLA RE:NEW programme – but no mention is made of the 200,000 original target.
• Building magazine reported only last week that “London mayor fails to secure funding for retrofit plans” stating that the Mayor “lacks funding for 86% of the energy efficiency retrofit work on London’s housing stock that he planned to deliver this year, after failing to secure financial backing from the government. As part of his election campaign, the mayor pledged to complete 20,000 retrofits of London homes this year under his RE:NEW energy-efficiency programme. But he said this would rise to 145,000 if he secured central government funding for the scheme. But the Department of Energy and Climate Change has now confirmed that while “informal discussions” took place, no funding was agreed.” Read the full article here [subscribers to Building only].
• The Mayor has announced recently that he is undertaking a formal evaluation of RE:NEW which will include full details of the programme and that these will be published in July, and the same time that Phase II of RE:NEW begins
• The programme spend for RE:NEW to date has been £7.8m