E.ON CEO: ‘Give more energy efficient homes lower council tax bills to incentivise private investment in green housing’

E.ON's chief executive is calling for council tax banding to be based on a home’s energy efficiency as part of efforts to boost private investment in green energy.

The boss of the UK’s largest energy supplier, who started out as an environmental specialist, told the Standard the Government should also lower stamp duty on more energy efficient homes to capture a piece of the mortgage market, and alter building standards so that new houses are built "carbon-free", complete with heat pumps and solar.

Michael Lewis, who has headed up the big six energy supplier since 2017, has committed E.ON to becoming carbon neutral by 2040. He said the Government "needs to stimulate the policies to drive us to zero-carbon and help people finance it".

"Most importantly they need to get private investment into this," he said. "The Government needs to change the tax system so it incentivises investment.

"It needs to continue with the Green Home Grant funding, so that we can continue to drive the supply chain, it needs to continue with ECO, which is the Energy Company Obligation which enables us to invest in energy efficiency, and it needs to start to change building standards so that when we build new houses they are carbon-free already - so with heat pumps, solar and battery. 

"And in retro-fitting, they need to do all the things I talked about with taxation - stamp duty, council tax, VAT - so that it becomes the default option for people."