Decarbonisation of housing: decarbonising the private housing sector

Inquiry5

The Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee held a short inquiry on decarbonising the private housing sector in Wales.

Report: The Committee published its report: Decarbonising the private housing sector (PDF 2.4MB) on 28 February 2023.

Welsh Government response: On the 18 April the Committee received a response (PDF 457KB) to the report from the Welsh Government.

Plenary debate: A plenary debate took place on Wednesday 3 May 2023.

Correspondence: Correspondence from the Committee to the Minister for Climate Change in relation to in relation to Decarbonising the private housing sector - update on progress, 26 July 2023

Background to the inquiry

In setting its priorities for the Sixth Senedd, the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee (‘the Committee’) agreed to undertake a multi-phase inquiry on decarbonisation of housing in Wales.

During the first phase of the Committee’s inquiry into decarbonisation of housing, we heard that, to date, the Welsh Government’s focus has been on decarbonising social housing. While stakeholders agreed it was sensible to begin the programme of retrofit in the social housing sector, they were concerned about the lack of progress made towards developing a plan to decarbonise privately-owned housing.

Building on the evidence already received from stakeholders, the Committee is undertaking a short piece of work focusing on decarbonising the private housing sector (i.e. the private rented and owner-occupied sectors).

The Committee will consider:>>>>

>>>the current approach to decarbonising housing in the private rented and owner occupied sectors in Wales, including the effectiveness of existing programmes and support for retrofit;

>>>the role of sector specific retrofit targets to help drive change;

>>>actions the Welsh Government should take to progress a programme of retrofit for these sectors in the short, medium and long term;

>>>the key challenges of delivering a programme of retrofit within these sectors, including financial, practical and behavioural, and action required from the Welsh Government (and its partners) to overcome them;

>>>how the right balance can be struck between influencing/incentivising home owners and private sector landlords to retrofit their properties and regulating to increase standards to drive progress;

>>>how effective the Welsh Government is influencing decisions on reserved matters to support decarbonisation of these sectors.

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Evidence gathering

The Committee launched a call for written evidence on 04 July 2022. The consultation closed on 22 August 2022. All responses have been published on our consultation page.

The Committee held oral evidence sessions on 5 October and 20 October 2022.

The Citizens Engagement Team conducted a series of 14 interviews during August and September 2022. The objective of the interviews was to gather the views of private landlords and homeowners, to further understand the real and perceived barriers to retrofitting their properties with energy efficiency measures. This paper (PDF 173KB) summarises the findings of those interviews.

On 6 October, the Chair wrote to the Minister for Climate Change (PDF 87KB) regarding the Welsh Government’s progress towards developing a comprehensive strategy and delivery plan for decarbonising housing. The Minister responded (PDF 165KB) on 10 November 2022.

Report

The Committee published its report: Decarbonising the private housing sector (PDF 2.4MB) on 28 February 2023.

Plenary debate

A debate was held in Plenary on Wednesday 3 May 2023.