Today we launch ‘Uncomfortable Home Truths’, which sets out a plan to put households at the heart of a transition to low carbon heat (1/13) policyconnect.org.uk/cc/research/un… #uncomfortablehometruths #UKClimateAction 
Moving away from high-carbon heating systems presents a massive challenge, with almost every existing home needing to be retrofitted to a low carbon heating system. It must be a priority area to ensure we meet our net zero targets (2/13)
Despite heat from homes contributing as much carbon as all cars on the road, @YouGov and @Survation polling for this report showed that both the public and MPs rank decarbonising heating at the bottom of their priorities of sources of emissions the Government should tackle (3/13)
So there’s a lot to be done to make people aware of low carbon heat, and to make sure planning for a low carbon heat transition places households at its centre. Below we set out key recommendations for policymakers to ensure households are engaged, supported and protected (4/13)
Firstly, in the next five years there must be long-term clarity on policy for heat in the UK, at-scale demonstrations of different low carbon heat options, and mass roll-out of low-regrets options including #energyefficiency (5/13)
Secondly, there must be a revolution in the availability of local energy advice centres that can offer regionally-specific, expert, independent #energyadvice to households (6/13)
Householders rely on tradespeople like gas engineers for good advice, so it is important there are upskilling programmes for these installers to be able to advise all households on their low carbon heat options (7/13)
It is critical that there are excellent protections for households, and high standards for installations of low carbon heating systems, to avoid bad experiences and the risk of distrust in low carbon heating (8/13)
As well making sure that households are protected and can access advice, it is also important that the transition to low carbon heat is highly visible, well-understood by the public and has broad public support (9/13)
How the long-term costs for heat decarbonisation can be fairly shared across society needs to be addressed in HMT’s review of the costs of decarbonisation. On the short term, Government should aim to make low carbon heat more financially and commercially attractive (10/13)
Finally, regional action on low carbon heat requires strong coordination and easily accessible expertise and information. This can be delivered by a new Central Delivery Body for low carbon heat, similar to the Olympic Delivery Authority for the 2012 Olympic Games (11/13)
We’d like to thank all of those who contributed to this inquiry, in particular our parliamentary co-Chairs @AlanBrownMP and @alanwhiteheadmp, our three sponsors @energyutilities @IGEMGi @baxiboilers and all those who were on the steering group (12/13)
We’ll be developing the themes and recommendations in a series of events over winter and Spring 2019/20, aimed at feeding into BEIS’ upcoming Low Carbon Heat Roadmap. Contact us here to get involved: policyconnect.org.uk/cc/contact (13/13)
