The Warm Homes Plan represents a historic opportunity to meaningfully tackle the national social crisis of fuel poverty. The Plan has the potential to change millions of lives; driving down energy bills, making homes warmer and healthier and installing energy efficiency upgrades in the homes of people who need them the most.
Just two weeks after the last general election, three newly elected Labour MPs from across the country wrote into Labour List on energy poverty, arguing it was a key part of the Labour agenda.
As with NHS waiting lists, this is an area where Labour government programmes have delivered before, with successful, scalable and accessible national programmes that worked to insulate homes, upgrade heating and deliver lower bills for people in or at risk of fuel poverty.
Jess Asato, MP for Lowestoft; Gareth Snell, MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central and Melanie Onn, MP for Greater Grimsby and Cleethorpes
Under the last Labour Governments, more than two million households across the UK received grant support to upgrade the energy efficiency of their home between 2005 – 2010 alone.
They were talking about the Warm Front scheme, which made millions of energy efficiency improvements possible that are still reducing bills for people and families today. Like the Warm Front scheme before it, the Warm Homes Plan – a massive £15 billion commitment - will support households across the UK struggling with the cost of heating their home.
This welcome new plan outlines the intention to “put local Mayors in the driving seat” and work with regional and local government to ensure that people get the vital help they need to stay affordably warm at home. The plan also has the potential to deliver relief to an NHS dealing with the range of health-related consequences for people who’ve been forced to live in cold, damp homes. [1]
It will also drive positive progress in the mission to tackle child poverty across the country, with so many young people still forced to grow up, develop and learn in harsh, cold environments.
Like many others in our sector, I welcome the clarity that this plan, and its potentially life-changing impact for vulnerable people, gives our industry. From the very small SMEs around the country to the larger organisations, this clarity will mean that businesses should now be able to plan for and invest in scaling up and building supply chains to deliver potentially thousands of new local jobs, training opportunities and apprenticeships for local people.
In leading an organisation that was set up more than a decade ago to tackle fuel poverty, helping over 50,000 households become warmer in their homes with cheaper bills while at the same time creating thousands of jobs at pace and scale, I also welcome the focus on quality standards. This will inspire consumer confidence and set clear parameters for delivery of the plan; locally, regionally and nationally.
Above all though, whilst we will all welcome the ambition and the commitments made in the plan, we also know that warm words are not enough. Warm homes are what matter. And, given the millions of homes still in fuel poverty, that’s why our focus must quickly now turn to delivering on those commitments at the scale that is required.
We’re standing by to work with DESNZ and other key stakeholders to move this plan from policy to delivery, to ensure that real benefits are delivered quickly and with care to people who have been waiting too long for the basic and fundamental right to live in a warm, healthy and affordable home.
