To ensure warm, climate resilient and decent homes for all, Labour must start by setting out the funding necessary to deliver the warm homes pledge
Eloise Sacares is a researcher at the Fabian Society. She leads work on the Fabians’ environment and climate policy, and has also published reports on social security.
This winter, many people have been stuck in cold, drafty, and generally non-decent homes. Poor-quality housing costs the NHS £1.4 billion a year and £18.5 billion to wider society. Meanwhile, nearly four in 10 UK households (39%) say they cannot afford to insulate their homes.
In their 2024 manifesto, Labour pledged an extra £6.6bn to upgrade five million homes over this parliament, doubling existing government investment. This ‘warm homes pledge’ is critical to tackling fuel poverty, reducing emissions, and improving health.
However, there are several challenges when it comes to turning this pledge into reality.
Funding uncertainty
Firstly, the funding remains uncertain. In the 2024 Autumn Statement, the government confirmed only a fraction of the funding previously promised. This £3.2bn is clearly inadequate for the scale of the challenge. That said, they have left the door open to announce further funding at the upcoming Spending Review.
Labour must confirm the promised funding and deliver long-term certainty on how it will be spent to upgrade homes.
But, this is not just for the government to deliver. We must also require landlords to upgrade their homes to be warm, climate resilient, and decent.
Challenges hitting targets
Secondly, decarbonising homes has proven notoriously tricky for previous governments to deliver. For example, the Conservatives’ Green Homes Grant scheme upgraded fewer than 10% of the homes promised and generated heavy administration costs.
In July 2024, Climate Change Committee analysis of the issue found the number of households receiving energy efficiency measures, heat pump installations and the number of trained heat pump installers are “significantly off track”.
This Labour government may be better placed to succeed than previous ones. It has far larger ambitions on green growth, and ministers have placed delivering warm homes as central to their mission on clean power. However, they will need to avoid falling into the same traps as previous governments on delivery.
Otherwise, there is a risk that people won’t feel the effects of falling costs, which could contribute to a loss of support for the party, and wider climate action.
Too cold and too hot
Third, the extent of the problems with Britain’s housing stock goes far beyond homes being cold in winter. Many are also too hot in summer, mouldy when damp, susceptible to flooding, water inefficient, and, in some cases, even unsafe. Research last year found that 8% of the UK population (or 4.5m people) had become unwell in the previous 12 months because their home was so hot in summer.
Therefore, measures to ensure homes are warm in winter need to be combined with other forms of retrofit to be efficient – and minimise intrusion on residents. This agenda cannot be viewed through individual interventions, instead we must look at the whole needs of the home.
Solutions such as better insulation, ventilation and reversible heat pumps can deliver double benefits, ensuring homes are protected from both hot and cold weather. And many existing homes need other improvements to ensure that they are safe and decent places to live.
Delivering warm, climate resilient and decent homes
Fabian Society research sets out how the government can deliver warm, climate resilient, and decent homes.
The Whatever the Weather report recommends that the government take a holistic approach to home retrofit. Policy should both reduce carbon emissions and ensure our homes are adapted to climate change impacts. Furthermore, the strategy should explicitly target social homes, recognising that people living in these homes are often not in the position to adapt their properties themselves.
Finally, Home Comforts, a new report on rented accommodation, recommends a new Good Homes Standard. This would seek to improve standards of rented accommodation more broadly over the next 10 years. It would include new requirements on energy efficiency, accessibility, floor coverings and safety as a bare minimum.
To ensure warm, climate resilient and decent homes for all, Labour must start by setting out the funding necessary to deliver the warm homes pledge at the next Spending Review. They must learn from – and take steps to avoid – the mistakes of previous administrations.
They must also develop a comprehensive strategy for upgrading homes to be energy efficient, climate-resilient, and decent. It is essential for both people and the planet, that this Labour government improves millions of homes – succeeding where Conservative governments have failed.
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