Warm Homes Plan

Status / emerging findings

• The LILEE fuel poverty definition excludes approximately 2 million households who would qualify under alternative metrics, risking the plan missing those most in need despite a 1 million household target.
• £15 billion funding is significantly less than the £1.5 billion annual support previously delivered by the Energy Company Obligation, with heavy reliance on rented sector and energy bill support rather than direct owner-occupier grants.
• Enforcement of minimum energy efficiency standards in private rented sector has been 'virtually non-existent' under current regulations; no mandatory landlord registration scheme exists, threatening failures under expanded scope.
• Loan-based support is unsuitable for fuel-poor households without repayment capacity; experts call for return to grant schemes like Warm Front for low-income owner-occupiers.
• Energy efficiency supply chain is contracting, not expanding, with jobs and skills being lost despite need for an ambitious retrofit programme; critical regulatory clarity missing on gas boiler bans and merged grant schemes.

Why it matters

The Plan aims to help 1 million fuel-poor households by 2030, but flawed definitions, underfunding, and weak enforcement could leave millions in genuine fuel poverty unhelped while loan burdens harm the poorest.

Tone arc

Sessions began cooperative on definitional issues but became adversarial as witnesses pressed the committee on the mismatch between stated ambitions and delivery mechanisms—funding shortfalls, enforcement gaps, and loan unsuitability for poorest households emerged as central inadequacies.

Key witnesses

Dr Brenda Boardman (University of Oxford), Peter Smith (National Energy Action), Dion Tickner (Age UK), Sam Perry, Louise Shooter, Joanne Wheeler