In response to the Government’s Warm Homes Plan the industry has given a broad welcome to the planned additional funding for green energy measures.
But it is concerned that significant gaps still exist within the plan and greater focus is required on key areas, such as more to address the health impacts of fuel poverty and poorly insulated homes.
The announcement did incorporate proposals such as targeting those on low-incomes, accelerating clean heat, battery storage and the creation of retrofitting jobs.
But concern remains that further measures have still not been forthcoming that would have provided a much more comprehensive package.
David Barnes, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), said: “Improving energy efficiency at scale will be critical for the UK Government to meet its wider net zero ambitions and reduce consumer bills. However, we believe these targets will only be met if there is a significant investment in skills and training.
“The importance of a trained and competent workforce advising and carrying out energy efficiency installations cannot be understated in light of recent, well-documented failures that have resulted in severe defects and low consumer confidence.
“Installing and maintaining evolving technologies requires a well-trained workforce, otherwise we risk having systems which do not provide maximum benefit for the consumer.
“To succeed, the Government must ensure the Plan is delivered in close consultation with the construction industry. Historically, issues with schemes have arisen when industry has not been engaged, while stop-start approaches and sudden funding withdrawals have further stunted progress and confidence.”
Simon McWhirter, CEO of UKGBC, said the plan represents a vital and necessary step towards delivering comfortable, affordable and future-proofed homes and buildings across the UK.
“UKGBC has long issued a clarion call for a long-term national strategy to tackle the challenge of retrofitting all our homes and commercial buildings at scale, and we are pleased to have worked alongside industry and government to help shape its development,” he continued.
“We welcome the ambition for a solar ‘rooftop revolution’, low interest loans to help households wean themselves off volatile fossil fuels, and the focus on protecting low-income householders. By harnessing abundant solar energy and heat pump technology to both heat and cool buildings, the plan will help future-proof against rising bills and our rapidly warming climate.”
Welcoming to the Plan, Usman Yaqub, President of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists, said: “A safe, healthy home is an essential foundation for a good life. But as the Warm Homes Plan acknowledges, UK homes are disproportionately cold and damp, fuelling the cost-of-living crisis and contributing to ill health, climate change and air pollution. In this context, the Warm Homes Plan, with its flexible approach and substantial financial underpinning, delivers on many of CIAT’s priorities.
“Tried and tested measures, such as insulation, rooftop solar panels and heat-pumps, will deliver rapid benefits, while innovative technologies, from heat batteries to local heat networks linked to new data centres, will put the UK at the cutting edge of the energy transition.
“CIAT particularly welcomes efforts to rationalise the UK’s complex, fragmented home upgrades landscape, by establishing the Warm Homes Agency as a single point of access, merging programmes over time, and providing a universal offer, so that no household is excluded from support.
“Of course, there is always more to do. While resilience measures such as external shading are mentioned, the Plan fails to recognise the value of holistic design-led upgrades, as outlined in CIAT’s recent report ‘Beyond the Warm Homes Plan: A National Retrofit Programme for People and Planet’. And while the Plan alludes to the Future Homes Standard and whole-life carbon assessment, it does not advance either of these prioritise, meaning that, for the time being, UK homes will continue to be built to outdated standards.
“But Overall, Warm Homes Plan represents a step change in how we tackle the UK’s crisis of poor housing. And that’s something to celebrate.”
Alex Notay, CEO of the Housing Forum, suggested more could have been included.
She continued: “It is very encouraging to see the Warm Homes Plan recognise the need to support consumers across the entire housing ecosystem and begin to draw together the threads of housing, energy and finance policy that are needed to address the challenge.
“However, the critical link between housing and health needs even more explicit focus, as do the skills, supply chain and data management to support this specific change.”
Paul Brocklehurst, a Radix Big Tent Housing Commissioner and Chairman of the Land, Planning and Development Federation also added: “This is a very positive announcement and sits well alongside our most recent piece of research. Our only concern is a potential lack of skills and materials affecting the implementation in the early stages. Level of take-up and therefore demand may not be fully understood for some time.”
Anna Clarke, Director of Policy and Public Affairs for The Housing Forum said its members across the housing sector know how important it is to reduce energy bills, keep homes warm and reduce emissions from our housing stock.
“We are particularly pleased to see the support for lowering bills via solar panels, alongside the details of the way that energy efficiency of homes will be measured in future with the reforms to Energy Performance Certificates,” she added.
“We urge the Government to implement the new funding streams as soon as possible to give the supply chain the continuity of work needed to build capacity.”
The long‑overdue launch of the Government’s new Warm Homes Plan, backed by £15 billion to upgrade up to five million homes by 2030, is a vital step toward cutting energy bills and improving the UK’s ageing housing stock. Certainty on funding, a clear timetable, and stable regulation is essential to ensure builders can get on with delivering upgrades to Britain’s homes, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB)
Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, commented: “The launch of the Government’s long awaited Warm Homes Plan is a critical step forward. A £15 billion programme to cut bills and upgrade homes, with the ambition to improve up to five million properties with energy efficient upgrades by 2030, is something which the FMB welcomes, but we must keep sight on the remaining 25 million UK homes that will still need upgrading at some point to make them fit for the future. While this intervention from Government is needed, there must be incentives to get the industry moving, to make sure they are competent and skilled up to upgrade the majority of the UK's homes.
“Focusing on the now, the task will be delivery. The new Warm Homes Agency must get up and running quickly to coordinate programmes and consumer protections, with procurement routes that give SMEs a fair chance to win work. The creation of a new Workforce Taskforce is also an important step. If the plan is to succeed, the Government must give industry a genuinely stable pipeline: multi‑year funding, a clear timetable, and certainty over future standards and regulations. Consistency will be essential if small builders are to invest in skills."
