With the ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ at the forefront of our lives we can all agree we are living in uncertain and worrying times. The increase of energy bills, high inflation, and recent tax increases has left us wondering ‘How will we cope?’
Over the last few months, The UK Government has made big promises regarding energy efficiency. Billions of pounds have been poured into efforts to reach net zero by 2050. We have seen new measures announced to help hundreds of thousands of people better insulate their homes and reduce consumption while saving families hundreds of pounds each year. The £6.6 billion ‘Help to Heat’ scheme launched earlier this year and the £1 billion ECO+ scheme that will see hundreds of thousands of homes across the country receive new home insulation, saving consumers hundreds of pounds a year. Plus, a new £18 million public information campaign will also offer technical tips and advice for people to cut their energy use, while also keeping warm this winter.
Business and Energy Secretary, Grant Schapps commented, “The government put immediate help in place to support households in the wake of global energy price rises caused by Putin’s illegal march on Ukraine. Today, we launch the first of many measures to ensure the British public are never put in this position again as we work towards an energy independent future. A new ECO scheme will enable thousands more to insulate their homes, protecting the pounds in their pockets, and creating jobs across the country.”
Within the government schemes there are a variety of cost saving measures available including External Wall Insulation, Loft Insulation, Energy Efficient Doors & Windows, Heat Pumps and Solar Panels to name a few and though these are all vital and positive developments from our government, we have seen that this funding has highlighted a serious roadblock – a desperate lack of skilled workers.
With several great energy initiatives in place right now, they are drastically accelerating the need for a skilled workforce in the energy industry.
For instance, a lack of skilled tradespeople led to £53m of grant funding being returned to the government just last year alone. For instance, the Greater South East Net Zero Hub was awarded £78m intended to help install energy efficiency measures in 7,500 homes in fuel poverty in its area. However, they did not have enough skilled workers to fulfil this need so as a result they only managed to improve 1,750 dwellings! This is only a quarter of the intended homes. Maxine Narburgh, leader of the Greater Southeast Net Zero Hub stated: “We were allocated £78m and we couldn’t spend all that funding because we did not have enough installers with the capacity to deliver in the region. It was incredibly disappointing.”
Upon doing research, the Energy Systems Catapult predicted that upgrading just 10 million homes would require 46,500 full-time workers. Furthermore, (considering those who will not be working full-time) recent reports have suggested that the total workforce needed could be up to 200,000!
How vitally important training is in the times we are living and as the demand continues to grow, the training is following suit. The BBC writes that ‘more than 500,000 training courses will be needed over the coming months and years.’
In conclusion, if householders are going to benefit from the Government assistance in helping to reduce our cost of living through our energy bills, then we need to fundamentally start at the beginning of the issue: to train more people in becoming skilled in the energy sector and to fulfil this urgent requirement.
Richard Elton
Managing Director of UK’s leading Energy Training company, Energy Trust
https://energy-trust.co.uk/