CIBSE welcomes the long-overdue publication of the UK Government's Warm Homes Plan. The commitment of £15 billion to upgrade five million homes by 2030 recognises industry calls to urgently address fuel poverty, cut carbon emissions and improve occupant health and wellbeing.
The plan provides much needed policy certainty and there are some specific things to welcome in the publication:
- Further investment in the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, with greater consumer choice through a wider range of clean and green technologies.
- Financial support to help low-income families decarbonise their homes.
- Plans to rollout new Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) for the private rental sector, with similar changes proposed for the social rent sector alongside planned reforms to the EPC regime.
- The extension of ECO4 to enable remedial work on faulty insulation to be completed, without additional impact on bill payers.
- Confirmation the new Future Homes Standard will be published in Q1 this year.
CIBSE is also pleased to see the inclusion of a case study highlighting research on passive cooling strategies led by our Research Manager, Dr Zoe De Grussa, as well as a reference to TM65 as a best practice methodology for calculating embodied carbon.
However, the Government’s ambition could and should go further. Retrofitting five million homes over the next five years represents only around one fifth of England’s housing stock, underscoring the scale of the long-term challenge still ahead. In addition to comparable incentives for small businesses and public sector buildings (particularly following the withdrawal of funding for the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme), CIBSE would have welcomed a clearer focus on indoor environmental quality and ventilation as integral components of successful retrofit.
Commenting on the Plan, CIBSE's Technical Director Dr Anastasia Mylona said: "As delivery moves forward, it will be essential that retrofit programmes take a whole-home, performance-based approach. Notably, the sustained emphasis on heat pumps, in combination with solar, battery technologies and district heating, offers a clear and positive signal of the future trajectory of domestic heating. These technologies can deliver real benefits but only when properly designed, installed and integrated with fabric efficiency, ventilation and overheating risk management."
As ever, CIBSE will support the Government and delivery partners through our expertise in building performance, engineering standards and professional competence. Ensuring high-quality outcomes at scale will depend on clear technical guidance - such as that set out in CIBSE’s design guides - a skilled workforce and robust standards that put occupant comfort, safety and energy performance at the heart of delivery.