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The report, Home Truths, assesses the Government's record and sets out, for the first time, a blue print for delivering huge carbon cuts from UK homes while eradicating fuel poverty, creating jobs; cutting energy bills; and increasing fuel security. The report was commissioned by Friends of the Earth and The Co-operative Bank as part of The Big Ask Campaign for a strong climate change law. Parliament will begin debating the Government's Climate Change Bill today.

Carbon dioxide emissions from the housing sector have risen by more than five percent since 1997 and account for 27 percent of the UK's carbon footprint. Although the number of households living in fuel poverty initially fell under Labour, the figure has since increased to four million – double the number in 2002.

Home Truths found that current Government policies will only deliver half the cuts in household carbon emissions they should have achieved by 2020. The Government has no policies for cutting emissions from homes in the longer term.

The report outlines a comprehensive policy framework at local, national and EU level, for cutting carbon emissions from new and existing homes. It shows how initial Government spending of £12.9 billion a year for approximately ten years can deliver 80 percent cuts in carbon emissions, the elimination of fuel poverty and provide permanent energy savings from UK homes worth £12.3 billion a year. The average household could see their energy bills cut by at least 66 percent, equivalent to a £425 annual saving at today's prices.

Investing in low-carbon homes will also help avoid damage from climate change which the Stern Report estimates could cost the UK economy over £100 billion a year by 2050.

Key recommendations include:

• Introducing a package of financial incentives
  Financial incentives will make it cheaper for householders to cut their energy use and produce their own green energy. This package will include grants, low interest loans, stamp duty rebates and a reduction in VAT on energy efficiency measures to five percent.
• Reforming the energy market
  A feed-in-tariff system is introduced which rewards households that fit Low or Zero Carbon technology (LZC), such as solar panels, with a guaranteed premium price for any electricity they sell back to the grid. It is complemented by a renewable heat obligation, which requires a proportion of household heat to come from LZC sources, and a green gas tariff which encourages the use of waste gas as a fuel.
  
  The aim is to fit every home in the UK with at least one LZC by 2050. UK households would be net exporters of electricity, generating up to ten percent more then they require.
• Eradicating Fuel Poverty
  Low-carbon Zones will be created, initially in areas where there is a concentration of fuel poor households. Local authorities would implement a street by street programme of improvements aimed at upgrading the walls, windows and roofs of homes in each zone by, for example, insulating solid walls. The report estimates that this approach would eliminate fuel poverty at a cost of £3.3 billion a year for the next nine years - treating 444,000 houses a year at an average cost of £7,500 per house.
• Introducing and enforcing minimum standards for homes
  All homes in the UK will be issued with an Energy Performance Certificate grading them from G (very inefficient) to A (very efficient and almost carbon zero). Minimum standards for energy performance will then be introduced and tightened over successive years.
  
  Anyone who buys or rents out a house or flat that does not meet the minimum standard will not be allowed to sell or re-let it until it has been upgraded. By 2050 three million homes, which are so cold they are officially a health hazard, will have been upgraded, and the rate of heat loss in the average house will be halved.

Friends of the Earth's Big Ask Campaign and The Co-operative Bank are campaigning for a strong climate change law that will commit the UK to cutting its emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Home Truths demonstrates that the UK housing sector can deliver this level of cuts in an equitable way.

Dr Brenda Boardman, the report author, said:
"This report sets out a win-win scenario. It shows that we can make huge cuts in emissions from UK housing and that we can do this in a way which wipes out fuel poverty and ensures everyone has a warm, comfortable, low-carbon home. The Government needs to drive this transformation. It needs to provide the political commitment and financial support to turn this report into reality."

Friends of the Earths Low-carbon Homes Campaigner, Ed Matthew said:
"It is neither cheap nor easy for a householder to make their home low-carbon. This is the Government's fault and they must radically change their approach. The investment required is significant but but the economic costs of not tackling combat climate change would be catastrophic."

Simon Williams, Director of Corporate Affairs and Social Goals at The Co-operative Bank, said:
"As a business we have reduced our own emissions by 90 percent since 1997, so we welcome this report showing an 80 percent cut in household emissions is achievable. However, in order to realise the vision of the homes of the future set out in the report, significant Government intervention is required urgently, starting with a robust Climate Change Bill. Its time for the UK to get its house in order."

The report found the Government's current policies will at best deliver carbon emissions reductions from housing of between 11 and 18 percent by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels). This is barely half the 30 percent reduction the Government should have achieved by 2020 if they were to be on a trajectory to reduce household carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2050, let alone 80 percent by 2050.