At The Retrofit Academy CIC, we’ve been championing quality retrofit and skills development for a decade. We know how critical a skilled workforce is if we are to upgrade nearly 30m homes. We also know that the industry needs more certainty than the stop-start funding of previous years if it is to develop into a robust and thriving sector that attracts the talent it needs.
The long-awaited and newly published Warm Homes Plan, which provides £15 billion of funding to upgrade 5 million homes by 2030, is therefore a potential game-changer.
What Exactly Is the Warm Homes Plan?
Published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on 21 January, the Warm Homes Plan sets out a framework for improving the standard of UK housing – by making our homes warmer, healthier, cheaper to run and kinder to the environment.
It pledges a £15 billion investment into home upgrades over the next 5 years through a mix of support for low-income households, a universal offer and new protections for renters.
Here’s the lowdown:
1. Support for Low-Income Households
£5 billion of public investment is earmarked to deliver improvements for low-income households through a combination of energy efficiency measures, including solar panels, heat pumps, batteries, smart controls, insulation and draught-proofing. This is the biggest public investment in tackling fuel poverty in UK history.
2. The Universal Offer
As well as the continuation of the £7,500 heat pump grants available to eligible households through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, Government-backed zero and low-interest loans for solar panels, batteries and heat pumps will be introduced.
A Strategic Finance Partnership will also be set up with the green home finance sector to develop and grow the range of green finance options available, providing an opportunity for homeowners to access finance to upgrade their homes.
3. New Protection for Renters
Households in the private rented sector are the most likely to live in fuel poverty and privately rented properties have the lowest average EPCs when compared to socially rented or owner-occupied homes. Acknowledging this, the Warm Homes Plan requires landlords to upgrade their properties (with some exceptions) to EPC Band C by October 2030. Financing options will be introduced to enable these improvements.
Why Should Retrofit Professionals Welcome This?
There’s no doubt that the Warm Homes Plan represents a step change in ambition compared with years of stop-start funding and fragmented schemes. Retrofit has long suffered from uncertainty, short-term funding schemes, procurement delays and complex eligibility rules. This new plan, however, goes a long way towards providing the certainty and security the industry needs.
- The scale of funding involved signals that retrofitting homes is not a niche policy anymore; it’s a national priority.
- Fully funded packages for the lowest-income households mean we can continue to help the most vulnerable first, easing fuel poverty and making homes warmer, healthier and cheaper to run.
- Loans and grants for broader segments of society recognise the growing appetite for home upgrades and the challenges holding this back, enabling far more people to invest in energy efficiency measures than ever before.
- Protection for private renters means landlords will now have to take steps to upgrade their portfolios, with 500,000 households being lifted out of fuel poverty as a result.
What About Quality and Consumer Protection?
The Retrofit Academy has consistently advocated for quality retrofit delivered at scale. We are committed to a “race to the top” when it comes to retrofit advice, assessment, coordination, design and installation. It’s why we continue to invest heavily in our qualifications and courses and forge partnerships with organisations like The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (sometimes known as RICS).
We welcome the commitment to long-term, stable funding outlined in the Warm Homes Plan, as we know that certainty breeds confidence and enables businesses to grow, invest and innovate.
We welcome the commitment to low-income households, free and low-cost loans for all, and the protections offered to renters, as we know this will not only maximise the number of homes that are warmer, healthier and kinder to the environment, but also increase the demand for a highly skilled workforce and thus, the availability of good jobs.
When it comes to consumer protection, cheaper bills and warmer homes go a long way, but only if retrofit is done right. The Warm Homes Plan acknowledges the high levels of non-compliance found in ECO4 and commits to:
- a far simpler system for both consumers and installers,
- right first-time installation,
- clear redress pathways for consumers where things go wrong, and
- a complete overhaul of the regulatory arrangements surrounding retrofit.
This is welcome news.
What Does It Mean for Skills and Jobs?
Taken together, this can only result in an upsurge in demand for the skills needed to improve the UK’s housing stock; the retrofit advisors, assessors, coordinators, designers and installers that do the work on the ground. Indeed, the Warm Homes Plan projects a 180,000 increase in the number of jobs in the energy efficiency and clean heating sector by 2030, across all UK regions.
The creation of a new Warm Homes Plan Taskforce will help people transition into these new roles, aligning the regional demand for and supply of the skilled labour needed. The opportunity for good-quality, long-term employment in the energy efficiency sector is very real.
The Warm Homes Plan also pledges a continued commitment to invest in funded and subsidised skills programmes like the Heat Training Grant and the Warm Homes Skills Programme. Through these schemes, the retrofit workforce of the future can gain the knowledge and skills needed for an exciting, rewarding and stable career in the retrofit sector.
What Is The Retrofit Academy Doing?
The Retrofit Academy is committed to the provision of high-quality training to develop the skills needed to support the delivery of the Warm Homes Plan.
- Our qualifications and courses have been developed by industry experts and are constantly updated to reflect new practice and standards.
- Through our “free-to-all” Retrofit 101 course and Retrofit Careers Hub, we are providing information, advice and guidance for those looking to transition to the retrofit sector.
- We are developing the retrofit professionals of the future through Skills Bootcamp and Warm Homes Skills Programme funded training, training hundreds of people to work in the retrofit sector.
- We are supporting those affected by the end of ECO4 through discounted training provision,
- Our commitment to lifelong learning and practical support is demonstrated through the comprehensive CPD, events and technical support we offer to our graduates and members via Retrofit Academy Membership.
- Our Work Placement Scheme offers a 6-week placement with a retrofit employer with the possibility of permanent employment.
If you’d like to find out more about the Warm Homes Plan and the work of The Retrofit Academy, please get in touch: