How the Warm Homes Plan can turn promises into progress

The Warm Homes Plan pledges to spend £15bn funding home upgrades and transforming the domestic decarbonisation and retrofit sector. While widely welcomed by the industry, the plan’s slow mobilisation to date puts it at risk of underdelivering – and the low-income households it’s designed to support will suffer the most from any delays.

This month the Energy Security and Net Zero committee’s Warm and Comfortable Homes inquiry is seeking input on whether the Warm Homes Agency is being set up and resourced correctly to get the UK’s ambitions for the Warm Homes Plan on track.

Given the importance of this inquiry for the wider sector, we’re sharing our views and urge industry members to have their say.

Commitment versus delivery

Beyond pledging to be an effective mechanism for funding home upgrades, the WHP is designed to act as a catalyst for growth in the home decarb and retrofit sector.

However, having allocated funding over a fixed 4-year period (2026–2030), implementation of the plan needs to speed up if it’s going to ensure more low-income households benefit from warmer, more energy-efficient homes within that period.

The existing Warm Homes: Local Grant (WH:LG) and Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (WH:SHF) schemes provide substantial support to vulnerable households. But both programmes end in 2027/28 – at the same time as the Government plans to transition to a new, combined, low-income scheme.

The cost of delay

Any delay in mobilising this new scheme (which looks increasingly likely) risks creating a cliff edge for the support available to those households most in need, and intensifies the wider delivery challenge.

The Government's ambition to lift up to 1 million households out of fuel poverty by 2030 relies on public investment and stronger Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) across the private and social rented sectors. This regulatory framework is still being implemented. Combine that with a gap in funded support, and there will be even less time to improve low-income homes before 2030.

Priorities for delivery

To achieve the outcomes Government has set for the WHP, it’s crucial to avoid a break between existing and successor programmes. While the new infrastructure is welcome, developing these new systems shouldn’t come at the expense of getting support to households.

We believe it makes sense to prioritise current delivery through successful existing mechanisms. With the WH:SHF scheme already receiving additional funding for 2026/27, committing further funds to the WH:LG programme would protect continuous delivery for households, while allowing sufficient lead time for effective, realistic development of the new scheme.

Also, by giving the sector earlier visibility of the timing and funding of the new WHP scheme, the UK Government would enable confident investment in the capacity and development needed to deliver the plan. We need more initiatives like the Installation Assurance Authority (IAA)’s recently launched Installer Registration Card Scheme, designed to improve oversight and standards across the retrofit sector and boost consumer confidence in preparation for the WHP rollout.

Swift, effective delivery is essential for the WHP to succeed

The Warm Homes Plan has great ambitions for tackling fuel poverty and decarbonising homes, but its success will depend on how quickly and effectively the sector can deliver it. By accelerating funding through existing programmes, the government could avoid a break in support for households in need and ensure the new scheme is mobilised properly.

Ignoring this opportunity risks the Warm Homes Plan failing to achieve the outcomes it was created to deliver in the first place.