Home energy upgrades in the UK are key to bringing down bills, reducing fuel poverty, mitigating climate change and creating greener and more comfortable homes. The UK government has committed to supporting people through the process through schemes that offer funding and installation.
The Government’s Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, set out to tackle fuel poverty and help reduce carbon emissions, has come to an end. The arrangements for its replacement under the Warm Homes Plan are being formulated. So there’s no better time to ask what worked, what didn’t, and what the next scheme needs to get right.
In collaboration with climate charity Possible, we reviewed the ECO schemes with householders, landlords, installers, energy suppliers and industry professionals to draw out the lessons that should shape the Warm Homes Plan delivery. The resulting report, Unlocking Warmer Homes, makes recommendations for the future of home energy upgrades. Our key findings are outlined here – read on to learn more.
Home upgrades are key to cutting emissions and bringing down the cost of bills
Putting householders first
ECO schemes were largely driven by lowest-cost delivery, which resulted in patchy coverage and often poor-quality installations and service. Future schemes need to be people-centred with clear outcomes to improve homes and lives, creating warmer, more comfortable housing, lower energy bills, better health and reducing fuel poverty. This includes ensuring that more homes are included, and proper care and support is provided to householders throughout the process, including aftercare.
Support for local authorities
The biggest change in the Warm Homes Plan is that the energy suppliers will no longer be obligated to deliver home energy upgrades. The shift is to local authorities, who will play a crucial role in delivering home energy upgrades. But many currently lack the resources and experience to successfully meet the needs of their residents. The government must support local authorities with funding and resources and ensure they have access to the experience and information they need to manage the transition.
The report highlights that home energy upgrades would be most successfully delivered through a co-ordinated and partnership-based approach, not delivered in isolation. Local authorities would be more successful if they worked with community partners, built strategic relationships, and could draw on a national framework and campaigns that keep messaging consistent and clear. Claire Harrold, Community Retrofit Director of Repowering London explains:
“At Repowering London, our experience shows that successful home energy upgrades depend on trust. People need clear advice, local relationships and confidence that the work carried out in their homes will genuinely improve their lives. The next generation of government support must put communities at its heart, combining national ambition with local delivery, so that every household has a fair chance to benefit from warmer, more comfortable homes, lower bills and clean energy.”
The High, Streatham, where Repowering London worked with partners to deliver a roadmap to warmer homes
Public need and awareness
As part of the report, we commissioned independent polling with Survation to gauge public appetite and understanding of home energy upgrades. The results revealed a great need:
- 63% of people were worried about their household heating and energy costs
- 53% are interested in finding out more about home energy upgrades such as insulation, solar and battery storage
- 77% had not heard about the government schemes to support home energy upgrades that could help them.
In other words, people are anxious about the cost of energy, genuinely interested in the solutions, but unaware of the support that is available to assist them. This shows that awareness and delivery are the key issues, which supported the other findings in the report. Alethea Warrington, Head of Heat and Energy at climate charity Possible, sums up the urgency of getting this next home energy upgrade scheme right.
“As our summers get hotter and our winters get wetter, we need to ensure that households are protected from spiking energy costs driven by the cost of gas. We need urgent action to tackle the ongoing crisis of homes which are poorly insulated and extremely expensive to keep at a comfortable temperature. Government-backed schemes such as the Warm Homes Plan must be funded and delivered across the UK to deliver essential home energy and cost-saving improvements, and avoid the issues that its predecessor, the ECO scheme, was plagued with, including a postcode lottery that saw far too many households miss out. People across the UK can see that insulation, solar, batteries and solar panels will cut their energy bills and make their homes more comfortable. People want these energy upgrades – so let’s make sure they can get them.”
What needs to happen
There are many lessons that we can learn from ECO, including what happens when cost drives delivery leading to uneven coverage and inconsistent quality. The Warm Homes Plan is an opportunity to reset the agenda and do things differently, but only if the local authorities and trusted community organisations are properly supported, resourced and funded from the start, and the public awareness gap is bridged.
There are encouraging signs that the Government recognises the vital role that community organisations can play in delivering the Warm Homes Plan. Through consultations, workshops and engagement with organisations across the sector, there has been a genuine willingness to listen to the experience of those working directly with households and communities.
Listening, however, is only the first step. The success of the Warm Homes Plan will depend on turning that engagement into meaningful action. Community organisations need to be recognised as delivery partners, not simply stakeholders to consult. That means providing long-term funding, creating clear routes for collaboration with local authorities, and embedding community engagement into programme design from the outset. If the ambition is to deliver retrofit at scale while maintaining public trust and participation, the community sector must be treated as a core part of the delivery model.