Government launches £15 billion Warm Homes Plan

The Government has already taken immediate action on the cost of living at the Budget, taking an average of £150 of costs off energy bills from April. On top of this, around six million households will receive the £150 Warm Home Discount – a total package of £300.

Upgrading homes is one of the best ways to bring down bills for good, and this Plan is a vital next step in addressing the long-term issue of energy affordability for the country. Home insulation installations fell by more than 90% between 2010 and 2024, and millions of households have paid higher energy bills as a result.

The British people are currently showing record demand for home clean energy products like solar panels and heat pumps. The cost of these products continues to fall, but they are still out of reach for too many – and this plan will help bring these costs down so working people can benefit.

The Warm Homes Plan targets help at low-income families, alongside a universal offer, to ensure that working families can feel the benefits of products that can cut their bills.

Alongside this, the Plan will support consumer choice for all households, so people can choose the technologies that work for them as and when they want. Homeowners will be able to apply for government-backed, low and zero interest loans to install solar panels – unleashing a “rooftop revolution”.

These loans will also be available for batteries and heat pumps, making it easier than ever for every home to access clean energy technologies that can lower bills. Low-income households and those in fuel poverty could receive support that would cover the full cost of having solar panels put on their rooftop, or insulation installed, alongside new rules to ensure landlords invest in upgrades to cut bills for renters and social tenants.

“A warm home shouldn’t be a privilege, it should be a basic guarantee for every family in Britain.

“Today’s plan marks a turning point. It will help to slash energy costs and lift up to a million people out of fuel poverty.

“This is a government bearing down on the cost-of-living crisis. By driving bills down for good and upgrading millions of homes, we’re giving people the security and the fair shot they need to get on in life.”

“It is a scandal that millions of people in our country do not have the security of a home that is warm, affordable and safe.

“With this investment, we embark on a national project to turn the tide – waging war on fuel poverty and taking another step forward in tackling the affordability crisis for families throughout Britain.”

The government’s clean power mission is already delivering for the country, and this plan will ensure that millions of families feel the benefit of clean energy tech products in their homes over the coming years. The plan is backed by £15 billion government investment, including allocations for devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure homes right across the country can benefit from these upgrades.

It also includes common-sense measures to ensure that new homes are built cheaper to run, with solar panels as standard, with the Future Homes Standard to be implemented in early 2026.

The plan – the biggest public investment in home upgrades in British history – turns the page on over a decade of failure by previous governments. More than a million homes were built with higher bills following the cancellation of the Zero Carbon Homes standard – leaving families exposed to the energy price spike after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The three pillars of the programme are:

• Low-income households will receive free of charge packages of upgrades, depending on what technologies are most suitable for their homes- backed by £5 billion of public investment.
• For example, families could receive fully funded installations of solar panels and a battery, to the full average cost (currently £9,000-£12,000).
• For social housing residents, this could mean upgrades to entire streets at the same time, lowering bills and improving warmth and comfort for whole neighbourhoods.

• The government-backed, zero and low interest loans programme to get solar panels onto the nation’s rooftops and new rules that mean every new home will come with solar panels by default.
• This plan will triple the number of homes with solar panels on their rooftops by 2030.
• Making it easier for anyone who wants to get a heat pump, with a £7,500 universal grant for heat pumps, and the first ever offer for “air-to-air heat pumps” that can also cool homes in the summer.

• Today, 1.6 million children live in private accommodation suffering from cold, damp, or mould.
• The government believes in a simple principle that if you rent a home, private or social, a landlord has a responsibility to ensure that it is safe, warm, and affordable.
• By updating protections for renters, and supporting landlords to make these upgrades in a fair way over several years, an estimated half a million families will be lifted out of fuel poverty by the end of the decade.