Petworth House ‘welcome opportunity to make National Trust building more energy efficient’

The National Trust, had urged the government to insulate its buildings across the United Kingdom, including Petworth House, in a bid to make the properties more energy efficient and bring more money to the economy.

Petworth’s general manager Adam Hastie said: “Like all staff caring for National Trust places, he welcomes opportunities to explore ways to make Petworth House more energy-efficient, and to introduce energy-saving costs.

Improving the energy efficiency of historic properties could reduce carbon emissions from the UK’s buildings by an estimated five per cent each year and generate £35 billion of output in the economy, while making homes warmer and cheaper to run, a new report commissioned by the National Trust, Peabody, Historic England, The Crown Estate and Grosvenor had found.

The organisations said an extra 105,000 workers, including plumbers, electricians and carpenters, were needed to make historic buildings more energy-efficient, more than double the number currently working on the issue.

At the moment, around a quarter of all homes and a third of commercial buildings are considered to be “historic”, as they were built before 1919.

“The UK needs a long-term national retrofit strategy, led by the Government, positively bringing together training, funding and standards to sensitively decarbonise our historic buildings,” said Tom Burrows, Grosvenor’s executive director of sustainability and innovation.

“Only then can we truly seize this opportunity to tackle a significant source of greenhouse emissions while protecting our much-loved built heritage.”

The call echoes one made by former energy minister Chris Skidmore, who has also proposed a national retrofit strategy, and comes as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt considers his plans for the Budget on March 15.

Currently, almost a fifth of UK emissions come from buildings, according to the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) and Britain is said to have the leakiest housing stock in Europe, with as many as 19 million homes requiring better insulation.

“The potential to improve energy efficiency and decarbonise our housing stock is significant.” Chris Hughes, an Engineers Without Borders ChangeMaker said.