We wrote to Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, Minister for Energy Consumers, alongside 11 expert home and business decarbonisation organisations. This letter highlightst the key areas that must be addressed in the UK Government’s upcoming Warm Homes Plan.
Here is the letter in full:
Dear Minister,
As a group of expert home and business decarbonisation organisations, we write to you to highlight the five key areas that we think the upcoming Warm Homes Plan must include if it’s to:
permanently bring down household energy bills
improve energy security
lower CO2 emissions
In the context of the cost of living crisis alongside continuing high energy prices, it’s never been more important to upgrade the UK’s housing stock to reduce heat loss and switch to low carbon heating.
The UK Government’s commitment to invest £13.2bn to upgrade five million homes during this parliament is therefore very welcome. Yet we recognise that to achieve this target we need a comprehensive, joined-up approach to engage the public, scale up the supply chain and upgrade people’s homes.
The Warm Homes Plan presents a unique opportunity to set out a clear roadmap for the UK Government to go further than in recent years and bring down household energy bills, getting the UK closer to meeting its net zero commitments.
There are five core areas this group agrees the Plan must focus on if the UK Government is to successfully deliver on its ambitions:
1. Provide sufficient information, advice and support
The Plan must provide sufficient information and support to the public to make upgrades to their homes. This means addressing low levels of public awareness of the net zero transition to motivate households to act.
This should go hand in hand with setting up a national retrofit advice service in England that works alongside existing local services to deliver consistent outcomes across the country and simplify the process for households. Impartial, tailored advice will give people the confidence to upgrade their homes.
2. Effective access to funding and finance
There must be a financial offering available for all households to overcome the upfront cost barrier of retrofit. This should combine grants and UK Government backed loans. This means that those in fuel poverty don’t need pay towards the cost of home upgrades and that there’s a financial incentive for homes in higher income bands.
Simplifying access to financial support will also be key. This should include consolidating funding under a single recognisable brand as well as providing sufficient access to impartial, tailored advice.
3. Accelerate low carbon heating in homes
The Plan needs to accelerate the roll out of low carbon heat to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. This means supporting households to overcome the upfront cost as well as taking steps to reduce running costs of
Increasing public awareness and trust in low carbon heating will also be crucial, including myth busting to combat misinformation.
4. Make the Plan long term and all-encompassing
For market transformations such as the Plan envisages, continuity is more valuable than almost anything else. The Plan presents an opportunity to set out a long term, comprehensive approach that accounts for all building and tenure types. As part of this, key enabling policies, such as EPC reform and the Future Homes Standard, must be implemented without delay.
There must also be a commitment to invest the full £13.2 billion promised in the manifesto to set a long term direction for energy efficiency policy in the UK. Changes are also needed to simplify and strengthen consumer protections and to make it easy for consumers to seek redress, alongside a national advice service to help them get further support if they experience problems.
5. Support the supply chain to meet demand
The Plan must support supply chains to meet demand by providing policy certainty and clarity. Only this clarity will create the right framework for the supply chain to invest, developing the skills of the current and future workforce. This will also allow incentives to be put in place that make jobs in the supply chain more attractive across the country.
A supply chain that is in it for the long-term is much more able to consistently deliver high quality standards that will benefit consumers and maintain public trust and confidence.
We urge the UK Government to make sure these five areas are prioritised to ensure the Warm Homes Plan is a success so that more people can enjoy the benefits of warmer homes and lower energy bills.
We look forward to engaging with and supporting the UK Government in this vital area. The signatories of this letter would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss our proposals in more detail.
