Delivering warmer, affordable homes in every UK community

Warm, energy-efficient homes are vital to tackling fuel poverty and the cost of living crisis. Delivering them across the UK will create better health, jobs and economic growth, as well as lowering carbon emissions.

Ashden has joined more than 60 organisations to defend the government’s Warm Homes Plan in a joint letter to Chancellor Rachel Reeves:

“We welcome the news that the upcoming budget will look to take action to cut households’ energy bills at the upcoming budget, which is crucial to address cost of living challenges and boost the economy. However, it is vital that this is not at the expense of investment in energy efficiency measures and low-carbon technologies, which permanently lower households’ bills. 

While direct bill support provides an immediate way to help struggling households, decarbonising homes through cost-effective upgrades is the best way to sustainably address fuel poverty and reduce costs for all billpayers. Cutting the funding from bills, without a requisite increase in Treasury support, would abandon £6 billion of investment between 2026/27 and 2029/30. This would lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of cost effective home upgrades, with the lowest income households being at particular risk of missing out on support. 

It would also have a damaging impact on the supply chain in an industry that is worth around £20 billion and supports over 100,000 jobs. 87% of energy efficiency installers are not confident in the long-term stability of the market and nine in ten say jobs are at risk if schemes are delayed, let alone cut. Billions of pounds of private investment is on hold while we await the Warm Homes Plan.* The uncertainty caused by policy delay is already leading to job losses, and any planned private investment could be jeopardised by a sudden change of direction. 

Cutting Warm Homes Plan investment would trade off an enduring solution to affordable energy bills in favour of a short-term fix, something the Government has committed to avoiding. A previous Government significantly reduced energy efficiency funding seeking short-term relief for bills, which had the opposite effect of making them around £22 billion higher than they would otherwise have been.v We strongly encourage the Treasury to reconsider what would be a short-sighted move, which would call into question the ability to meet both the UK’s fuel poverty and carbon budget targets. 

There are better options to reduce energy bills now, while ensuring they remain lower in the long-term. Where possible, Treasury interventions should focus on cutting electricity costs, which would benefit all households and encourage investment in low-carbon technologies, supporting the ambitions of the Warm Homes Plan. The Government should also work at pace to implement a better targeted support scheme to adequately help those most in need.”

*Energy UK analysis. This includes capacity expansion of energy efficiency and low-carbon technology manufacturers and installers, heat network developments under construction and awaiting Final Investment Decision, financial service firms’ green products, and consumer purchases of low-carbon products.

Routes to retrofit: our three policy calls, and how they can be achieved

Accelerate retrofit to eliminate fuel poverty by 2030, and guarantee warm, energy-efficient homes for all by 2035 

• Secure the Labour Party manifesto commitment of £13.2bn for DESNZ’s Warm Homes Plan and take action to improve delivery confidence 
• Close the £18bn fuel poverty funding gap and set interim milestone targets for reduction in fuel poor households, with clear accountability. 

• Establish multi-year funding programmes that combine existing retrofit funding schemes – ECO, Warm Homes schemes and The Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
• Introduce a suite of financial incentives, such as an energy saving stamp duty incentive, to encourage retrofit at key points, like when homes are bought or sold. Complement these with low-interest loans or green mortgages for homeowners. 

Boost locally-driven approaches, to deliver one million home retrofits a year by 2030

• Establish a funding and delivery framework that empowers local authorities and delivery partners. Guarantee it will last for at least three years, so councils and can partners can plan strategically, invest in capacity building, and develop skills and supply chains.   

• Devolve powers to local authorities and local communities, so they can manage funds and co-develop retrofit programmes that reflect local priorities.  

• Create a comprehensive national database of property data, including energy performance, building characteristics, and eligibility levels. Combine this with greater support for Local Area Energy Plans, leading to more efficient and precisely targeted retrofit measures, weighted to areas where they will have the greatest impact. 

Create 200,000 good retrofit jobs across the UK by 2030

• Create a comprehensive Retrofit Workforce Plan, with commitment to train 200,000 new retrofitters by 2030.  

• Integrate retrofit skills into standard construction training and apprenticeships.  

• Create a new, long-term Green Skills Fund, that fully or partly subsidises training in key roles.  

• Use government-funded retrofit programmes to drive local skill development – by ensuring they have clear targets for local training or employment, alongside other social value targets. 

Get in touch

Explore how we can work together on this critical policy issue.

Find out more

Will Walker, UK Policy Lead
will.walker@ash.e-innovate.dev

Proven solutions: retrofit innovators we’ve supported

B4Box

Stockport’s B4Box use an inclusive approach to grow the retrofit workforce in North West England, upgrading homes while delivering paid training and routes to employment. 

tepeo

tepeo’s Zero Emission Boiler is a made-in-the-UK solution, greening domestic heating – which accounts for more than 10% of our carbon emissions. 

Kensa Heat pumps

Kensa’s innovative ground source heat pumps and shared ground loop arrays deliver efficient and affordable heating, tackling a major source of carbon emissions and reducing fuel poverty.

Carbon Co-op

Manchester’s Carbon Co-op has trained builders to deliver home energy efficiency upgrades, tackling a major skills shortage. 

Energise Barnsley

Energise Barnsley is lowering bills for older people in social housing, using the power of solar energy

How else are we accelerating retrofit?

• We’ve brought our insights and call for retrofit action to Parliament, with an event at the House of Commons. 
• Our report on Works and Training Organisations examines one potential solution to skills shortages. 
• We’re playing a key role in the Local Authority Retrofit Accelerator – a pilot scheme to increase and build supply chains in four areas. 
• Ashden is a partner of the National Retrofit Hub – Director of UK Programmes Donal Brown and Cities Manager Cara Jenkinson lead or co-lead two of its working groups. 
• Our resources and insights for councils help them take action on retrofit, and other important climate challenges.