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<p>The Clean Growth Strategy set out the aspiration that as many homes as possible
will be EPC Band C by 2035 where practical, cost-effective and affordable.</p><p>
</p><p>The current iteration of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO3) will upgrade
around a million homes for low income and vulnerable households by March 2022. ECO3
and its successor will drive £6 billion of investment between 2018 and 2028 to support
energy efficiency improvements. Furthermore, the Manifesto committed to an additional
£6.3 billion of public investment to upgrade the energy performance of fuel poor homes
and social housing.</p><p> </p><p>In April 2018, we introduced for the first time
a minimum energy efficiency standard of EPC Band E for private rented sector properties,
with all private rented properties required to meet, or exceed, this standard by 1
April 2020. We will be consulting in due course on options to increase this minimum
standard to EPC Band C.</p><p> </p><p>Last year, we launched Simple Energy Advice,
a new digital and phoneline service to provide homeowners with impartial and tailored
advice on how to cut their energy bills and make their homes greener, as well as information
on any available financial support.</p><p> </p><p>We also launched two energy efficiency
innovation competitions in summer 2019, both aimed at investigating ways to make energy
efficiency cheaper and more accessible for householders. The Whole House Retrofit
cost reduction trajectory competition made available £9.4 million of funding for projects
which demonstrate the potential to reduce costs for Whole House Retrofit. The Green
Home Finance Innovation Fund is making nearly £2 million of funding available for
a series of projects to develop innovative green mortgage and other lending products,
to improve householder access to green finance to support energy efficiency retrofit.</p><p>
</p><p>We have also committed to consult later this year on requirements for lenders
to support homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.</p>
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