Retrofitting our homes for a net zero future

Building on the evidence received in the previous Committee’s inquiry Heating our Homes, the Committee will invite two stakeholder panels to consider the policy changes needed to deliver low carbon heating and energy efficient homes.  

UK housing stock accounts for around 17% of national emissions and is among the least energy efficient in Europe. While good progress has been made to decarbonise electricity, natural gas still accounts for around 85% of fuel used for domestic heating and cooking. 

Many UK consumers are also struggling to afford their heating bills: the percentage of households in England spending more than 10% of their income after housing costs on domestic energy rose to 36.4% in 2023. 

The previous Government set a target of 600,000 heat pump installations per year but achieved just 72,000. Its flagship home energy retrofit programme, the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme, was beset by problems with delivery, upgrading around 47,500 homes out of 600,000 originally envisaged. Skills shortages appeared to be a major factor in the problems, and the scheme delivered only a small fraction of the expected jobs: it can take 4 years to train the specialists required.  

The project accounted for just £314 million of its original £1.5 billion budget and £50 million of that was administration costs - more than £1,000 per home upgraded. 

The new Government committed in its manifesto to upgrading five million homes over five years with the £6.6bn Warm Homes Plan. This is expected to include grants and low-interest loans to support families to invest in insulation, low-carbon heating and home improvements.  

Alongside this, the Government has committed to boosting minimum energy efficiency standards for private rented homes and social housing.

However, details of the Plan are not expected until spring 2025, even though consumer energy bills are set to rise again this winter. 

Questions to stakeholders

The Committee will question industry and consumer stakeholders on issues including: 

• What factors are contributing to the under-delivery of government retrofit schemes?
• How will the public afford the switch to low carbon heating?
• Does the Energy Performance Certificate framework help consumers to make informed decisions?
• How can we equip the workforce with the skills required to upgrade UK homes?
• How should the home heating transition be coordinated at a national and local level? 

The Committee is not making a full new call for evidence for this session, but if you are an interested stakeholder and would like to share your views please email the Committee at commonsesnz@parliament.uk  

Although this is not a formal call for evidence, please read our guidance on content, length and format to help the Committee consider your submission.   

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committees
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