Open letter to DESNZ: A decade of national retrofit
5 June 2025
We are encouraging organisations to support this open letter to the Government. If your organisation would like to sign, please click the link below.
Dear Secretary of State,
We are writing to request that, as part of the Warm Homes Plan, the Government commits to funding existing domestic retrofit schemes until at least 2035.
We fully support your ambition that all families deserve the security of a home they can afford to heat and the longer-term aim of decarbonising all of the UK’s housing stock.
We believe that the schemes that are currently in place are all delivering positive outcomes for households and contributing to these goals. These include:
- Energy Company Obligation
- Warm Homes Local Grant
- Warm Homes Social Housing Fund
- Boiler Upgrade Scheme
We are keen to see a commitment from the Government to spend the £13.2 billion promised in the Labour manifesto on warm homes. We believe that this would unlock significant private sector investment – as evidenced in our recent report into the benefits of the retrofit to the wider economy. This shows that each £1 of public investment could deliver nearly £9 in economic, societal, environmental and consumer benefits.
But just as important as the funding amount is the length of time that these schemes are allowed to run. Huge benefits can be achieved by giving certainty to the energy efficiency industry by extending the lifetime of these schemes by a decade.
Such a commitment will signal to organisations that it is safe for them to invest in the recruitment, training and procurement necessary to deliver the improvements we need to millions of homes. It will also avoid the frustration and confusion amongst customers and installers that the stop-start nature of previous schemes has caused.
We are pleased that the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee has come to the same conclusion in its recent report, ‘Retrofitting Homes for Net Zero’, asking the Government to fund schemes until at least 2035.
A decade of national retrofit will achieve the renewal of Britain’s housing stock, an end to the scourge of fuel poverty, and a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Signed,
AgilityEco
