Almost half of UK councils feel they’ll be unable to pay for rising energy bills unless they’re able to invest to retrofit buildings to make them more energy efficient, with 15% warning that some public buildings may become unusable.

The survey found that 44% of councillors believe that retrofits are required to decarbonise their building stock to counter rising energy costs. While 82% of respondents claim their local authority has a plan in place to help deliver net-zero commitments, 58% believe that efforts to rollout energy and retrofit measures are being impacted by budget shortfalls.

In total, 30% of councillors listed retrofitting and decarbonising as their top priority for infrastructure projects, but 56% are unaware of what budget they have to carry out changes.

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