Wales’s Auditor General Jeremy Colman said no Welsh local authority will come close to cutting energy use by a third before April – a target set by the Home Energy Conservation Act over 10 years ago.

He warned that although housing is getting more efficient, 14 of Wales’s 22 councils may fail to meet their performance targets this year and called on councils and the Assembly Government to encourage private homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient. Most of the effort is going into public-sector housing which covers a minority of homes.

The report found big differences in how many staff worked on meeting the requirements and said the Assembly Government should come up with a standard performance framework.