A recent report has called on the Government to enhance the minimum standards required for insulation in residential properties. It also looked at implementing a safety scheme for installers, which would provide home owners with peace of mind when choosing someone to fit their insulation. Both of these elements would help to improve the energy efficiency of UK homes and preserve some of our rapidly depleting energy supplies. The report, released by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME), has highlighted a number of measures that it wants the Government to introduce as part of a package to bring UK homes up to the same standards as those in other developed countries. They want new legislation that would require every home to meet minimum standards for insulation. In order to incentivise homeowners to carry out the work on their properties, they believe that a system of rewards should be brought in. This might include the ability to offset some of the costs of installing the insulationby reducing the stamp duty that is payable when they sell. Inefficient insulation The Institution realises that this wouldn’t be a straightforward process, but it does feel that it’s necessary if our homes are to become as energy efficient as they should be. The age of many of the properties in the UK means that a large percentage of them are poorly insulated. The IME believes that recent Governments have failed to take the necessary action to implement energy efficiency measures that would require homes to be better insulated. This is leading to homeowners spending more money on heating their properties adequately. However, if all our homes were better insulated, it would help to conserve our drastically reducing gas reserves. They realise that not every home owner would have the financial ability to be able to afford these improvements, but that this shouldn’t prevent them from being able to take advantage of the benefits of better insulation. Therefore, there would also need to be a national fund established to finance the work for this group of property owners. Register of installers Installers need to be a crucial part of this drive and this means that they have to have the correct training and qualifications. This will ensure that the insulation is carried out effectively and in line with the necessary guidelines. They want the Government to bring in free training and a compulsory register of competency. The IME report looked at establishing a certification scheme that insulation installers would have to join. This would be run along similar lines to the Gas Safe register; so that property owners would have an organisation which they could go to to find a fully qualified installer. If the measures recommended by the IME were introduced, it would benefit the country as a whole. Homeowners would see a reduction in their energy bills and have warmer homes, and we would be able to preserve some of our energy supplies for the future.