Energy efficiency Over 90 per cent of our homes are heated by fossil fuels, accounting for a third of UK total gas use. The price spikes in the gas market mean households are particularly exposed to these changes and facing energy bills upwards of 2,000. The majority of our homes are energy inefficient. Improving the efficiency of our homes could reduce our heating bills by around 20 per cent and reduce our dependency on foreign gas. By 2025, around 700,000 homes will be upgraded, and by 2050 all our buildings will be energy efficient with low carbon heating. At the end of the First World War, Britain was a nation in which almost 80 per cent of people rented their homes. Fast-forward to now, and around 70 per cent of people own their own home, with most built prior to the 1973 oil shock which precipitated an improvement in insulation standards.