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The Insulated Render and Cladding Association (INCA) has signed an industry-wide letter to Chancellor George Osborne and Energy Secretary Amber Rudd calling on Government to make energy efficiency a national infrastructure priority, as part of a campaign led by the Energy Bill Revolution. The letter, which is supported by 50 leading business and energy organisations, highlights new research published today by Frontier Economics, which confirms that energy efficiency can be classed as infrastructure and delivers economic benefits comparable to HS2 Phase 1, Crossrail and new roads.

The research confirms that energy efficiency constitutes infrastructure as it frees up energy capacity for other uses and provides public services by reducing carbon emissions and improving health and wellbeing. It also reveals that a programme to make UK homes energy efficient would provide net economic benefits of £8.7 billion. The research builds on analysis from Cambridge Econometrics which shows that deploying infrastructure funds to support an energy efficiency programme could create up to 108,000 new jobs and boost Britain’s energy security.

With the Government poised to spend £100 billion on infrastructure during this Parliament, the letter makes a strong case for an energy efficiency programme to be included. If just £3 billion was allocated to such a programme, it could help to establish a world-leading energy efficiency programme that works to keep homes warm and bills down. It would also make a meaningful start on addressing the more than seven million households in Britain living in draughty and expensive-to-heat solid wall properties, including almost half of the country’s fuel poor, where solid wall insulation is the only solution.

INCA Chairman Pádraig Barry said: “The Spending Review in November offers a real opportunity for a change of approach from Government and the evidence is clear that investing in energy efficiency offers significant benefits not only to individual households but to the wider economy. As the leading trade association for external wall insulation, INCA supports the call for energy efficiency to be classified as an infrastructure priority which would help to lift families out of fuel poverty and transform local communities.”