To create jobs, improve the quality of housing, and deliver on our shared commitment to net zero carbon emissions we will develop a proposal to deliver a housing energy efficiency retrofit programme.
This will reduce fuel poverty, cut carbon emissions and create meaningful local jobs.
In the face of an employment crisis brought about by the pandemic this will create a significant number of jobs, contribute to UK Government and Scottish Government commitments achieve net-zero carbon emissions, greater energy security, lower household energy bills, warmer homes and better health outcomes through reduced fuel poverty.
We know the extent of the challenge – there are over 236,000 homes across Glasgow City Region that would benefit from home insulation and improved energy efficiency, and these are often in our most deprived communities. We estimate that it will cost approximately up to £25,000 per property to install energy efficient home insulation and to reduce carbon emissions by using clean energy technology.
Our proposal is to develop a ten year £5 billion investment programme that will upgrade the insulation for all properties in the City Region that need it and to explore the use of innovative renewable technologies to deliver clean energy. Delivering a timely comprehensive programme of investment in home energy efficiency and clean energy will have the added benefit of helping us to avoid projected future skills shortages and rising labour costs in the construction sector.
This would require a sustained 10 year investment that would support over 75,000 jobs and generate £4.4 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) across the City Region. In addition to the employment and economic benefits, widespread insulation across the City Region could remove 10.7 million tonnes of carbon emissions per annum. The certainty provided by a long-term programme of investment in residential energy efficiency and clean energy will offer significant opportunities for local companies to grow exponentially in order to deliver this ambitious programme of work. It would also create supply chain opportunities for local manufacturing companies to grow and for new businesses to locate within the City Region and create sustainable jobs.
Proposals will be submitted to the UK Government and Scottish Government.
