Labour has revealed its Warm Homes Plan, the biggest ever investment in home upgrades to cut fuel poverty for up to 1 million families and turn the page on more than a decade of failure by previous Conservative governments.
- Under Labour’s Warm Homes Plan, support will be targeted at low income families, alongside a universal offer to ensure every type of household in the country, regardless of income, will have the chance to benefit from clean power upgrades to cut their energy bills.
- The affordability crisis is the number one issue facing families in the country, that’s why Labour is acting to take £150 of costs off energy bills from April, and delivering record investment into upgrading homes to cut bills.
- The Warm Homes Plan will mean millions more families can benefit from clean power technologies ranging from solar panels, to heat pumps, batteries and insulation that will bring down bills. Labour is also unveiling new protections for renters, to ensure landlords invest in upgrades to cut bills for renters and social tenants.
- As a result of Conservative failure, home insulation installations fell by more than 90% between 2010 and 2024, with millions paying higher bills as a result. Many of the installations that were carried out were of poor quality, as a result of a fragmented and broken system of regulation. Through the Warm Homes Plan, Labour is ending that failure.
- Labour’s plan is backed by £15 billion in 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.
- Our clean power mission is the long-term solution to tackling energy insecurity; by sprinting to clean, homegrown energy, the UK can take back control of its energy and protect family finances from fossil fuel price spikes with cleaner, affordable power.
- While many measures announced in the Warm Homes Plan apply to England only, the UK Government will work with the devolved administrations to ensure that the bill savings from the transition to clean energy technologies are felt in all parts of the UK.
- In Wales, the WHP will build on existing work by the Welsh Government such as the Warm Homes Nest scheme targeted at low income households, and the Green Homes Wales scheme.
- In Scotland, while the SNP have cut funding for solar power and home upgrades, the UK Labour government is determined to ensure that Scotland can benefit from this record investment in clean power upgrades.
Policy summary
- DIRECT SUPPORT FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES
- 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.
- AN OFFER FOR EVERYONE
- 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.
- NEW PROTECTIONS FOR RENTERS:
- 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.