All homes in Britain will have smart meters installed by 2020. New plans were published which will see Great Britain become the first country in the world to have an overhaul of this size for both electricity and gas meters.
Smart meters enable meter readings to be taken remotely and, together with a display device, give householders real time information on their energy use.
The new information smart meters provide will help consumers to see what energy they are using and how to save money on their bills.
Smart meters will mean the end of estimated bills, no more having to stay in for home readings, quicker and smoother switching between suppliers and cheaper, easier prepayment.
Smart meters signify the start of a change in our energy habits. They are a key step towards future smart grids which have the potential to help our shift to a low-carbon economy - making it easier for renewable generation to feed into the grid, including micro and community level generation and will support the decarbonisation of heat and transport through the greater use of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Suppliers will be able to offer more tariffs and services, such as 'time-of-use' tariffs, encouraging more efficient and economical energy use.
The preferred roll-out option is the central communications model - where energy suppliers are responsible for the installation and maintenance of the smart meter but the communication to and from the device is coordinated by a third party across the whole of Great Britain.
The other principal models considered are:
Cconsultation is open to the public and will run to 24 July 2009.
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) published on-line guidance of how social landlords can bid for part of the additional £84 million housing funding package announced in April's 2009 Budget for cavity wall insulation.
The Social Housing Energy Saving Programme (SHESP) aims to help social landlords insulate hard to treat cavity walls, which would have not normally have been filled under the Decent Homes programme, thereby making more homes much more energy efficient.
The funding made available seeks to deliver on a number of aims:
The SHESP funding will be delivered over two years and is expected to deliver a total of 130,000 difficult-to-fill insulated homes. Eligible bids must be for at least category 3 insulation (hard to fill), and the minimum size of a bid is 1000 homes to be insulated.
This is the second funding package announced by the HCA since April's Budget, following shortly on from the launch of the £400 million Kickstart Housing Delivery Programme package - to unlock sites that have stalled but where development could proceed immediately.
All new homes will feature inbuilt protection from hot water scalding in baths and will use water more efficiently under measures announced by Housing Minister Iain Wright.
From October 2009, all new build homes will have protective devices fitted to baths to limit hot water temperature, and will need to meet a new minimum standard of 125 litres of water per person per day to improve water efficiency.
Amendments to Part G (sanitation, hot water safety and water efficiency) of the Building Regulations were laid before Parliament, which introduce:
These amendments follow a wide reaching review and consultation on the detailed proposals in May 2008 and a consultation in December 2006 on the water efficiency for new buildings
In addition, the Government also published the Water Efficiency Calculator for New Dwellings that will be used to estimate water usage for the purposes of both Part G of the Building Regulations and for the Code for Sustainable Homes.