Insight: Supporting net zero behaviour change – one household at a time

Reed in Partnership works with thousands of people each year to support them to change something, whether that is give up smoking, find a sustainable job or lose weight.

More often than not, people really want to make that change (most smokers in the UK would like to quit, for example) but need clearer information, encouragement and help with overcoming real practical barriers.

When it comes to the UK’s net zero targets, the vast majority of UK citizens want to play their part. The Behavioural Insights Team found that 88% of people in the UK would like to make more sustainable, greener choices if they could. However, the same proportion (88%) also feel that it is too hard to do so because of high costs, inconvenience, limited knowledge or other barriers. This has proved particularly true when it comes to decarbonising our homes, especially the move from gas and oil to heat pumps.

This week, Reed in Partnership and Retrofit Coordination are launching an innovative service to help households on their retrofit journey, on behalf of Warm Homes Suffolk, funded by Suffolk’s public sector organisations including Suffolk County Council. Over the next 18 months, we will be offering every homeowner in Suffolk whose property has an EPC rating of below C a free or significantly reduced Retrofit Assessment on their properties.

Our local, UK Government-endorsed energy efficiency professionals will be out visiting homeowners across Suffolk. We will work with them to understand how they live and use energy in their homes. We will create with them an easy-to-follow, step-by-step, tailored action plan for homeowners that will set out what they can do to reduce energy consumption, increase the comfort of their home and highlight how much money this could save on their energy bill. This will include supporting homeowners to then carry out improvement measures, including by accessing a variety of locally available sources of funding to do so.

Meanwhile, the Government has made some important announcements this week that will help make the consumer journey easier. As part of the rollout of the Warm Homes Plan, the Government has boosted the budget for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, while relaxing some of the planning red tape around installing air source heat pumps.

These targeted interventions should help further lower some of the barriers for households who would like to improve the sustainability of their homes, but see the process as confusing, risky and uncertain. Decades of work with communities across the UK has taught us that that if you want to support people to make changes, you need to start from where they are. We are excited to start work locally with Suffolk residents to support them to upgrade their homes for the future.

To find out more about the scheme, visit suffolkenergyassessment.co.uk/