Initiative was only announced last November and members included NIC chair Sir John Armitt

A taskforce set up to quicken up home insulation and boiler upgrades has been disbanded less than a year after being first proposed in the wake of the government’s U-turn on net zero policies.

Among the initiatives scrapped by prime minister Rishi Sunak last week was a series of energy efficient regulations aimed at landlords.

It was set up in March, having been announced by chancellor Jeremey Hunt last November and its members, who were reportedly told by letter their roles were no longer required, included National Infrastructure Commission chair Sr John Armitt.

Sir John Armitt - meeting shot March 2022

Sir John Armitt was a member of the now disbanded taskforce

Hunt had said the new energy efficiency taskforce would be “charged with delivering energy efficiency across the economy”.

Among its aims was to drive the expansion of programmes to help people carry out retrofit works on their homes.

Mace chief of staff Hannah Vickers said at the time: “If the government gets that right, it could catalyse demand in the owner occupier sector because it could work to help people understand what it means to have their property retrofitted.”

And UKGBC head of policy and public affairs Louise Hutchins added: “If it really does bring together the insight from across industry – from academia, from civil society – we could really start to tackle the strategy that’s needed to get us from where we are now which is a piecemeal, unambitious approach.”

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero statement thanked the taskforce for its work and said £6.6bn has been invested in energy efficiency upgrades this parliament.