The Green Deal will not be enough to retrofit all of the UK鈥檚 homes, and the government should bring in compulsory regulation and penalties to force through domestic energy efficiency, according to the Low Carbon Construction Innovation and Growth Team (IGT) report

Paul Morrell said that plans for mandatory standards should be drawn up in the event that the Green Deal, which will give homeowners up to 拢6,500 each to retrofit their homes, does not put the UK on track to make the country鈥檚 26 million homes more energy efficient by 2050.

Describing the 鈥渁lmost universal perception鈥� held in the industry that regulation was essential to create 鈥渕ass demand鈥� for retrofitting, the report recommends that the government should 鈥渋ntroduce a suite of measures including regulation, fiscal incentives and penalties to ensure success鈥�.

Asked how to incentivise businesses to retrofit existing homes, Mark Clare, chair of the IGT housing group and chief executive of Barratt Developments, said: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we should assume that the Green Deal is as far as we will need to go. I think we will have to incentivise and penalise people over the next decade.鈥�

He added that if the UK was not retrofitting a 40th of its housing stock a year - about 650,000 - by 2020, 鈥渢hen you are in serious trouble鈥�.

The Green Deal will give homeowners and businesses grants to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings which will be paid back from the savings in energy bills.