The Government announced on Tuesday 20 January, details of its long-awaited Warm Homes Plan, a £15bn programme designed to support households with solar panels, heat pumps, and insulation, helping to lower energy bills and decarbonise homes across the UK.

The plan aims to upgrade five million homes and bring more than one million households out of fuel poverty by 2030 by cutting long-term energy and running costs.

A new Warm Homes Agency will also be established to help households navigate funding, installations and technology choices, with the aim of simplifying the retrofit process and accelerating delivery.

For housebuilders, one of the most significant measures is that new-build homes from as early as 2026 will be required to include solar panels as standard under updated building regulations.

The original Warm Homes plan had focused on scaling up home insulation, seen as a cost-effective way to reduce heat loss across the UK’s notoriously leaky housing stock.

However, ongoing controversy surrounding the government-funded Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme — which was plagued by poorly executed installations — has led to the scheme not being extended.

The Warm Homes Plan will encourage households to implement a combination of three low-carbon technologies: heat pumps, solar panels and battery storage. The intention is for more of the electricity demand from heat pumps to be met by home-generated solar power rather than the grid, helping to drive down running costs.

Speaking to the BBC, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the government’s approach was “the most cost-efficient long-term way to make a difference to people” and to bring energy bills down.

“We saw the highest demand for solar panels last year, the highest demand for heat pumps we’ve ever seen, but we don’t want those to just be the preserve of the wealthy,” he added.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said:
“A warm home shouldn’t be a privilege, it should be a basic guarantee for every family in Britain.”

To read the government’s full announcement and details of the plan, click here