The arrival of a new Prime Minister offers something more valuable than a change of leadership. It offers a chance to rethink how government delivers.
For millions of families, politics is no longer judged by speeches or ambitions but by whether life becomes more affordable, healthier and more secure. Few policies demonstrate that challenge more clearly than the government’s flagship Warm Homes Plan.
The ambition is the right one: lower energy bills, reduced carbon emissions, an end to cold, damp and unhealthy homes, greater energy security, and fewer families trapped in fuel poverty. But ambition alone will not deliver those outcomes.
If Andy Burnham’s government wants to rebuild confidence that politics can improve everyday life — and that policies can pass the “Makerfield test” — it must focus less on announcing new programmes and more on ensuring existing ones actually work. That means rewiring the Warm Homes Plan around delivery.
The National Warm Homes Council represents many of the organisations that will ultimately be responsible for making the Plan succeed. From manufacturers and installers to retrofit specialists and housing experts, our members understand what works on the ground — and what doesn’t.
Our message is simple: the government can achieve its objectives faster, more affordably and at greater scale by prioritising practical improvements that permanently reduce heat loss before asking households to invest in expensive low-carbon technologies.
The UK’s housing stock remains one of the least energy-efficient in Europe. More than half of homes in England and Wales still only meet insulation standards dating back to the 1970s. Even where insulation has been installed, too much of it no longer performs as intended because it has been compressed or damaged over time.
This matters because no amount of electrification can compensate for a home that continues to leak heat. Installing a heat pump in a poorly insulated property is like pouring hot water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom. Around a quarter of a home’s heat escapes through the roof alone. If that basic problem is not addressed first, families will inevitably question why their energy bills have failed to fall.
The evidence is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Independent testing by the National Physical Laboratory found that compressing loft insulation from its intended depth can reduce its thermal performance by more than 50 per cent. Given that around 80 per cent of households use their loft for storage, this is not a niche issue — it affects millions of homes across Britain.
Unless insulation is protected, much of today’s public investment risks delivering only a fraction of its intended benefit. The National Warm Homes Council estimates that failing to safeguard insulation could ultimately waste more than £3 billion of taxpayers’ money through remedial works and lost performance.
There is also an economic opportunity here. Retrofit should not be viewed simply as climate policy. It is industrial policy. Stable, long-term investment in insulation, skilled installers and home improvement creates jobs, supports British manufacturing, strengthens energy resilience and reduces household demand for imported energy. Yet uncertainty around delivery risks repeating the stop-start mistakes that have damaged confidence across the sector before.
Just as importantly, public opinion is shifting. Recent polling commissioned by the National Warm Homes Council shows that voters increasingly want practical measures that reduce bills today rather than expensive technologies whose benefits feel distant or uncertain. Nearly two-thirds of respondents identified reducing energy costs as the government’s highest housing priority, while support for insulation measures was particularly strong among younger voters.
This should not be interpreted as opposition to net zero. Rather, it is a demand for a more practical sequence. Families understand the need to decarbonise Britain’s homes. What they want is confidence that every pound they invest — and every pound the government spends — delivers visible improvements in comfort, affordability and resilience.
That is why the new Prime Minister has an opportunity to reshape policy around delivery rather than ideology. The Warm Homes Plan should become the programme that permanently lowers bills because it fixes the fundamentals first.
The National Warm Homes Council believes three priorities should guide that reset.
First, put a genuine fabric-first approach at the centre of the Warm Homes Plan. Every major retrofit should begin by improving and protecting the building fabric before installing heat pumps or other clean technologies. Government should recognise that insulation is not a supporting measure — it is the foundation on which every other energy-efficiency investment depends.
Second, mandate the protection of loft insulation through raised loft boarding wherever government-funded insulation is installed. This simple, affordable intervention prevents insulation from being compressed, maintains its performance, provides safe storage and access for homeowners, increases property values, and protects taxpayers’ investment. It is one of the quickest and most scalable improvements available today.
Third, work in genuine partnership with industry to accelerate delivery. Government should engage those responsible for implementing the Warm Homes Plan, provide long-term policy certainty, address the shortage of retrofit skills, and expand accessible low-interest finance so more households can afford improvements. Stable regulation and collaboration will deliver better outcomes than repeated policy resets.
The new Prime Minister has inherited significant economic and political challenges. But he has also inherited a rare opportunity. A rewired Warm Homes Plan could reduce bills, tackle fuel poverty, improve public health, strengthen energy security, create skilled jobs and restore confidence that government can make a meaningful difference to people’s lives.
Leadership change alone will not achieve that. Policy change will.
The National Warm Homes Council stands ready to work with the Prime Minister and his Cabinet to translate ambition into delivery — quickly, affordably and at the scale Britain now urgently needs.
David Lennan is Chairman of the National Warm Homes Council.
