Electric heating isn't terribly viable as an option in the UK. An awful lot of our winter electricity comes from fossil fuel generation especially during cold winters when demand is highest, it's expensive and inefficient to convert gas to electricity and run that through a heater instead of burning it directly, and we're too temperate a climate for heat pumps to be viable except maybe on new builds. Also, electricity supplies to rural areas aren't terribly reliable during bad winter winter so it's probably not that suitable for heating.
We're supposed to be phasing out gas for new build homes in a few years but I'm not convinced it will actually happen.
I have move to UK, and to my surprise it has exceptionally poorly insulated and leaky homes, even new builds, even compared to ex-Soviet Europe.
It's really a colossal waste of money, as insulation would pay for itself very quickly. A government program is needed to rebuild a lot of older homes. Combined with general shortage of new housing and quality issues, housing in UK is quite a sore point for me.
Yes, it's a disgrace. There is an insulation programme, and it's achieved very little.
I'm not really sure why. Belief that being cold is "character forming"? Obsession with traditional architecture? Failure to realise the real temperature swings?
We're supposed to be phasing out gas for new build homes in a few years but I'm not convinced it will actually happen.