NEWS UPDATE BUILDINGS AND HEAT WAVES


Overheating is now a critical building safety issue


MPs split on removing electricity levies


Nearly half of Britain’s MPs would support cutting electricity taxes to make heat pumps more affordable for households, according to new polling that reveals significant gaps in political understanding of the government’s clean energy policies. The survey of 111 MPs by polling company Savanta found that 48% would back removing levies from electricity bills to reduce the cost disparity with gas heating, whilst 17% opposed the measure and 34% remained undecided. The findings highlight a key barrier to heat pump adoption in the UK, where households currently pay four times more for electricity than gas despite much of Britain’s power coming from renewable sources. About four- fifths of energy levies are applied to electricity bills, with only one-fifth added to gas, making electric heating substantially more expensive. Political divisions emerged along


party lines, with Liberal Democrats showing strongest opposition at 58%, compared to 22% of Conservative MPs and just 10% of Labour politicians disagreeing with levy removal. The same survey also revealed only limited awareness of the government’s flagship Boiler Upgrade Scheme amongst MPs themselves. The survey revealed that 36% of parliamentarians have little to no familiarity with the programme, 9% admitted never having heard of it, while only 8% of MPs demonstrated detailed knowledge of the scheme. Conservative MPs showed lowest awareness at 84% despite their party introducing the policy in 2022. The research was commissioned by clean energy company Aira, whose UK operations director Matt Isherwood called for better education of both policy makers and constituents about heat pump benefits and available support schemes. Matt Isherwood, Aira UK service operations director, says: “The growing support for lower electricity prices shows that it’s high time to get down to business and deliver the ‘big bang’ moment the heat pump industry, politicians and British households have been waiting for – one that will supercharge the country’s adoption of heat pumps.”


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With the UK recording its warmest summer on record, the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) is calling for urgent action to tackle the growing number of buildings that overheat. The Association says the rising number of deaths linked to longer and more intense heat waves makes this a serious building safety issue with larger parts of the population now vulnerable to heat-related health problems.


“2022 might have seen more


dramatic temperature peaks but this year seems to mark a move into much longer and more relentless periods of heat stress,” says BESA’s technical director Kevin Morrissey. “This is significant because it suggests we are experiencing a new long-term weather pattern which calls for a more concerted effort to adapt our built environment.” Research by the environmental


campaign group Friends of the Earth (FoE) has identified almost 5,000 neighbourhoods in England that now regularly suffer from heat stress. These


Decentralisation the key to avoiding energy


rationing Following news that the Netherlands has been forced to ration electricity due to the strain of electrification, energy solutions specialist Aggreko is warning that this may be a sign of what is to come in the UK and is highlighting the key role that decentralised energy will have to play in supporting this transition. More than 11,900 businesses,


new homes and public buildings are currently awaiting a connection to the Dutch grid, which is struggling to cope with growing demand due to its ageing cabling infrastructure. Despite investments in new substations and infrastructure, network operators say that some connections will not be available until the mid-2030s. According to Craig Fleming,


utilities sector lead for UK & Ireland at Aggreko, the Netherlands may serve as an early warning as to what may follow in other countries: “The Netherlands is a prime example


in our society, cooling must now become a central part of the UK’s push to decarbonise the built environment, which continues to focus primarily on how we heat buildings.” BESA believes overheating should


areas cover about a third of the country and contain more than 1,000 hospitals, 10,000 children’s nurseries, and a similar number of care homes, meaning many of the most vulnerable people are now at severe risk from the effects of excess heat. FoE believes there could be more than 10,000 heat-related deaths annually in the UK by 2050 and is urging the government to address its “climate adaption plans” to take heat waves into account. “There are multiple technical


solutions available, including both passive and mechanical cooling systems,” adds Morrissey. “However, to ensure these reach the most vulnerable


be part of the wider building safety regime. It pointed out that the addition of fire-resistant insulation was making many more homes liable to overheat, so this needed to be offset by better ventilation and cooling. “Overheating is the most overlooked building safety issue,” says Morrissey. “Improving insulation to reduce heat loss and protect occupants from fire is extremely important, but in many cases, this is exacerbating growing health problems caused by poor indoor air quality (IAQ) and condensation by raising temperature and humidity and reducing air change rates.” BESA, which manages the


refrigeration and air conditioning registration scheme REFCOM, says that the UK’s increasingly intense summers are fuelling growth in demand for residential AC. While this is a positive development for human health and comfort, the Association warns that it must be managed carefully to ensure installations met legal and technical standards.


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of the strain that electrification can place on the grid, and what the possible consequences are for business owners and end users. Europe is home to some of the oldest electricity infrastructure in the world, so this transition is not something to be taken lightly. “For this reason, decentralised


energy will be a key asset for both network operators and industry during this transitional period. When deployed on a large scale, decentralised energy can help reduce grid intermittency, while for businesses it can help support resilience and capacity, or bridge the gap while waiting for a grid connection to be established.”


The UK is also facing challenges with its ageing grid infrastructure as the pace of electrification ramps up. Many of the country’s components in use today were installed during the post-war era, with electricity transformers being, on average, 63 years old. To help support the integration


of renewables, large-scale, gas packages can be used to deploy power where the grid requires stabilisation, providing responsive, reliable energy to combat fluctuations. It is argued that these systems are ideal for balancing energy supply and demand, particularly during peak periods when additional capacity is critical.


EIBI | SEPTEMBER 2025


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