Warming to the mammoth task

I yearned for warmth and colour,
Which I found in Lancelot

Heat pumps, solar panels and gas boilers 1: Insulation: 0. The Warm Homes Plan has been released, finally. At its heart, the Warm Homes Plan is about future-proofing the UK’s housing stock: making homes warmer, cheaper to run and resilient to a rapidly changing climate. It’s about trying to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels as a way of heating our homes.

The long-heralded ban on gas boilers in new homes after 2025 has been quietly dropped, though the push towards heat pumps and solar panels is ramping up with a vengeance, backed by a £13.2bn investment commitment. The existing Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) is set to run until the end of this Parliament, with its grants of £7,500 towards air-source heat pumps. We’ve already been told that the BUS now also includes £2,500 support for air-to-air heat pumps for the first time.

Alongside this sits a strong push for solar, with ambitions for a full-blown “rooftop revolution”. There will also be support for all sorts of households, from full support for low-income households and those in fuel poverty,  to government-backed, low and zero interest loans for higher-income households. While this is aimed at helping households overcome the upfront cost barrier of installing new technology, there is always the question of whether households really do want to take on extra loans when the cost-of0living is still pretty painful. It does, however, underline the government’s intent to increase the uptake of improvements, and increase it quickly.

Importantly, fuel poverty remains a central focus. Of the £3.4bn allocated over the next three years for heat decarbonisation and efficiency measures, £1.8bn is earmarked specifically for reducing fuel poverty. Around 300,000 homes are expected to receive upgrades in 2025/26 alone.

Social housing is set to benefit, with £1.29bn available to retrofit homes with insulation, low-carbon heating and wider efficiency improvements. Meanwhile, the new Warm Homes: Local Grant will channel £500m through local authorities to support low-income households with measures ranging from insulation to solar panels and heat pumps.

This is all good news for anyone – merchants for example – hoping to sell heat pumps, batteries, solar panels, and the associated bits and pieces that go along with installing them.

It’s less good news for anyone hoping that their sales of insulation would rise, whether on the back of increased government support or increased legislation. Initially, the plan had focused on boosting the installation of insulation in homes which, as we all know, is a really cost-effective, easy way to reduce a home’s heat loss. But cock-ups with the government-funded insulation scheme, ECO, where thousands of installations were found to have been botched, means that scheme has been canned.

This plan is an opportunity to upgrade the UK’s housing stock, permanently bring down our energy bills and reduce our reliance on fossil fuel. With North Sea gas running out, the less we have to buy on foreign markets the better. Low carbon heat needs to be an attractive consumer offer, both in terms of the upfront and running costs and public awareness and trust in the technologies.

Plus, the question still needs to be asked: who is going to install all this new technology? Do we have sufficient – and properly trained – installers to meet the desired numbers? The last thing we need is another National Audit Office report  a few years down the line that uncovers botched or inadequate installations, as happened with ECO. And will keeping gas boilers in the mix just mean that householders, installers and, maybe even merchants, will err on the side of caution, sticking with what they know and trust?

Today’s announcement is a start, but there is still much work to do, not least with recruitment, training, myth-busting and marketing.