National Warm Homes Council

  David Lennan , Chairman,   National Warm Homes Council In the second of a two-part blog on key considerations for civil service policymakers preparing to publish the Warm Homes Plan (WHP) in the spring, I examine the sectors to upgrade homes first and the broader implications of delivery relating to partnering with SMEs in the retrofit sector to support the workforce and energy-saving technologies needed.  I t is taken as a given that for decades, the easiest sector to scale up retrofit into is the social housing sector. It has always been ripe for scaling government interventions, and therefore, it makes sense that this sector is the one already with the best insulation.  Moreover, one contract in the social sector can lead to hundreds of properties being treated, and there is already a set of tier-one contractors (such as members of the National Home Decarbonisation Group) who can scale up to do the work subject to workforce availability and training. Nonetheless...

David Lennan , Chairman,   National Warm Homes Council The government's much-anticipated publication of its Warm Homes Plan (WHP) is due in the spring. But what should civil service policymakers include in the plan to ensure the government is able to successfully deliver it in the time frame to which it has committed?  In a two-part blog, and to coincide with a one-to-one meeting at Number 10 today on this very topic, I set out some considerations and priorities for the government in delivering its WHP. In this first blog, I explore the challenges confronting ministers and possible policy solutions. In the second to be published in February, I will examine the sectors to retrofit first and explore broader implications of delivery relating to finance, SMEs in the retrofit sector and the workforce needed to support such measures.  To provide some context, fuel poverty is quickly becoming a crisis waiting to happen. A recent report by Warm This Winter found that about 9 mill...

David Lennan , Chairman,   National Warm Homes Council The government has just revealed new updates to its Warm Homes Plan to improve the energy efficiency of homes in the UK. At the heart of these plans is support for people switching to heat pumps. But with rising energy prices and fuel poverty increasing across Britain, will electrification be the most affordable and scalable solution to Britain’s cold homes crisis? Millions of families continue to live in heat-leaking and expensive-to-heat homes, where they struggle with cost-of-living pressures. Friends of the Earth claims that nearly 10 million people in the UK are living in cold, damp and poorly insulated houses. The poorest households could be paying up to £600 more a year simply to heat their homes. High energy bills continue to make things worse, with energy prices likely to remain high and volatile for a long time. The government’s approach to tackling these challenges was outlined last week. The next steps of the Warm H...

David Lennan , Chairman,   National Warm Homes Council The next Budget on 30 October marks a real opportunity to give a boost to green growth that could help address the heat-leaking homes blighting the lives of millions of low-income households and families across Britain. But how can the Chancellor use the forthcoming budget to support homeowners to lower their emissions and bills while creating more jobs and bolstering the UK economy?  With the energy price cap rising by 10% from next month, there is an increasing need to support families with home decarbonisation and offering more affordable heating options. However, the costs of retrofitting are becoming unaffordable for too many. The Federation of Master Builders claims that VAT costs put off about four million households annually from making any energy-efficiency changes to their homes.  Currently, VAT relief for energy-saving materials is limited to a very prescriptive list of low-carbon technologies, barely updat...

David Lennan , Chairman,   National Warm Homes Council The Labour government has pledged to upgrade five million homes in the next parliament to cut bills for families as part of its Warm Homes Plan. But how does the government go about delivering it?  The UK has the least insulated and energy-efficient homes in Western Europe. For too long, this has been causing harm to residents across Britain, millions of whom are experiencing fuel poverty and struggling to pay sky-high energy bills.  The government's Warm Homes Plan to tackle these issues is laudable. Still, the retrofit industry will find it incredibly challenging to scale up quickly to achieve the target of upgrading millions of homes. Bridging this gap means detailed answers from new ministers to key questions, including: • How does the government plan to recruit and train the thousands of workers needed to fix our homes?  • How will it support the industry to source materials, free up supply chains and ge...

David Lennan , Chairman,   National Warm Homes Council The three main political parties published their general election manifestos last week. But how far do these plans go to address the urgent need to overhaul our energy-inefficient housing stock and support homeowners to future-proof their homes and drive down bills?  The dire situation of heat-leaking and expensive-to-heat homes is being felt by millions of families and low-income households up and down the country. The UK has the worst-insulated houses in Europe. Citizen Advice claims that over half of all homes across Great Britain are still energy inefficient. Though 25% of a home’s heat is typically lost through an uninsulated roof, only 8 million lofts, or nearly a third of all lofts in the UK, have less than half the required levels of insulation. Sky-high energy bills continue to make things worse. Ofgem recently confirmed that energy prices are still significantly higher than before and will remain high and volatil...