The government’s progress on improving the energy efficiency of UK homes has been criticised in a report by the National Infrastructure Commission.

While the government has set an ambition for at least 600,000 heat pumps to be installed each year by 2028, figures highlighted in the report have shown that just 55,000 were fitted in 2021. Meanwhile, 1.5 million gas boilers were fitted in the same year.

In its report, the Commission was critical of “negligible advances in improving the energy efficiency of UK homes, the installation of low carbon heating solutions or securing a sustainable balance of water supply and demand,” which it said have been subject to a more short-term and changeable approach in recent years.

The last year has seen progress towards major infrastructure objectives “stutter further just as the need for acceleration has heightened”, the Commission said, warning the government is off track to meet its targets and ambitions “in a range of areas”.

Similar to its currently shortfall in heat pump installations, while the government expects 300,000 public electric vehicle charge points to be in place by 2030, only 37,000 public charge points are currently installed.

As part of several proposals for the government to “get back on track”, the Commission has called for policy staying power to deliver long-term goals and reduce uncertainty that adds cost for business and delays or deters investment.

The Commission also said it wants to see fewer, but bigger interventions from central government, with tighter strategic focus on the areas it can make the most difference rather than “expending too much effort on many small scale funding interventions and repeated consultations”.

Furthermore, the Commission has proposed “greater devolution of funding and decision making”, moving away from bidding processes and building on the multi-year funding settlements for combined authorities with long-term devolved budgets for all local transport authorities, while also allowing greater revenue raising powers at a local level.

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