Minister says new hospitals and schools can save taxpayers money if new builds are more efficient

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Improving the energy efficiency of the public sector estate will be part of the Treasury鈥檚 upcoming pan-Whitehall spending review, one of the department鈥檚 junior ministers has signalled.

At a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference last week, exchequer secretary Robert Jenrick identified greater energy efficiency as key to achieving better value for taxpayers鈥� money when the Treasury conducts its next review of government spending next year.

He said: 鈥淲e would like this to be one of the focuses of the spending review that the government is doing next year: how to make sure taxpayers鈥� money is being spent wisely through the lens of energy efficiency.

鈥淚f we build schools, hospitals and public buildings we want commissioning authorities in the first instance to be thinking about what is the most modern, efficient way of building. We would like that to flow through into energy efficiency.

鈥淚 hope the public sector can lead the way and that can flow through into the whole of society. Energy efficiency is one of the best value for money interventions that the government can make.鈥�

But Iain Conn, chief executive of the British Gas-owner Centrica, expressed doubts that the energy efficiency message is getting through to the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

He said: 鈥淭he good news is that the Treasury is really listening. The bad news is that BEIS hasn鈥檛 got off the starting blocks.鈥�

A separate meeting at the conference heard a call for Winter Fuel Payments, which gives pensioners 拢100 to 拢300 over the winter months to help with their fuel bills irrespective of income, to be scrapped and the money redirected towards energy efficiency measures.

Richard Howard, head of research at consultancy Aurora Energy, said: 鈥淭hat money could easily be redirected to doing something about energy efficiency. It鈥檚 not going to win grey votes but the government needs to think big on that.

鈥淲e need big push on energy efficiency: it doesn鈥檛 get you all the way there but gets you part of the way.鈥�

And he called for new regulation to improve the energy efficiency of the UK鈥檚 new build housing. 鈥淟et鈥檚 sort out the basic things. That means we have set of regulations that at least drive in the right direction.鈥�

 

 

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