According to the Financial Times, several Whitehall sources are blaming Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings for a policy shift away from insulating old houses to building new ones. A source said Cummings was actually rather sceptical about the 2050 Net-Zero target.
One source said the chief adviser saw the green project as “boring old housing insulation” while another said Cummings was actually rather sceptical about the 2050 Net-Zero target.
Another said Mr Cummings believed that building new houses rather than insulating old ones was now a bigger priority and should take the lion’s share of the £9bn capital spending.
Boris Johnson has been urged to fulfil his manifesto promise to spend £9bn on a huge household insulation programme as his chief adviser tries to shift the spending on to other priorities.
The UK prime minister delighted green groups in November when he committed the Conservative party to “invest £9.2bn in the energy efficiency of homes, schools and hospitals”.
But the policy has been snarled up in a Whitehall turf war after Downing Street chief adviser Dominic Cummings sought to water down the policy.
Mr Cummings has privately argued that the cash should be spent on building homes instead — with insulation a priority for later on.
Now the House of Commons’ environmental audit committee is launching an inquiry into home insulation, warning that without any immediate action the UK will miss its target to meet net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.