Government announces details of £15bn Warm Homes Plan

The government has announced details of its £15bn plan to provide households across the country with solar panels and heat pumps.

The Warm Homes Plan will include targeted interventions for low-income households, upgrades for social housing and new protections for renters.

It will also include a universal offer of low or zero-interest loans for all households to cover the cost of solar panel installation, batteries and heat pumps.

The government said the scheme will triple the number of homes with solar panels by 2030.

A public investment of £5bn will offer low-income households free of charge packages of upgrades, depending on what technologies are most suitable for their homes, including fully-funded installations of solar panels up to the full average cost of £9,000 to £12,000.

For social housing, these interventions will aim to upgrade multiple dwellings at the same time.The plan is understood to include the existing Warm Homes: Local Grant, Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (which replaced the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund) and the boiler upgrade schemes.

The wider programme for all households will offer a £7,500 universal grant for heat pumps, and an offer for “air-to-air heat pumps” that can also cool homes to tackle overheating in the summer. 

Meanwhile, new protections for renters will support landlords to upgrade private accommodation which suffers from cold, damp or mould, with the government aiming to lift half a million families out of fuel poverty by the end of this decade. 

The government said it will set out more detail later this year on how consumers will be able to access low-interest loans after discussions with the finance sector and consumer groups.

The plan will also see the creation of a new Warm Homes Agency, which the government said will ”bring together existing functions from across the regulator and other government arms-lengths bodies, providing new consumer support while removing duplication and waste in the current delivery landscape”.

Prime minister Keir Starmer said: “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.” 

Energy secretary Ed Miliband added: “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 plan’s £15bn of government investment includes allocations for devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.