NHF urges government to commit to £13.2bn for decarbonising homes amid ‘trimming back’ rumours

The Warm Homes Plan aims to improve the energy efficiency of up to 170,000 homes, including social housing. A key part of the plan is the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (WH:SHF), previously known as the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), which allocates grant funding to social landlords. 

In last autumn’s Budget, the government confirmed an initial £1.29bn for the WH:SHF, up until 2028. This was part of an overall commitment of £3.4m for the Warm Homes Plan over the next three years. 

However, the letter from the group said: “Limiting investment to the amount allocated in the Autumn Budget at the June Spending Review will result in the loss of 3,000 skilled, future-proof roles.”

The social housing sector has previously warned that a lack of skilled retrofitters is the biggest barrier to decarbonising their stock.

The letter added that the retrofitting sector had been “rocked by boom-bust government policymaking since it grew out of the last Labour administration”.

It added: “As a result, businesses need government to give them confidence to invest in the sector’s future, training skilled heating engineers and retrofit installers, or manufacturing insulation and clean heating technologies in UK plants.”

The groups said the £13.2bn allocation is an opportunity to add 12,000 new skilled roles to the retrofit workforce this parliament. 

The letter concluded: “We need the government to uphold its manifesto commitment to invest £13.2bn in the Warm Homes Plan.”

A Treasury spokesperson said: “At the Autumn Budget we allocated £3.4bn for our commitment to the Warm Homes Plan and the chancellor will set out further details on 11 June. 

“We welcome stakeholder representations as part of the ongoing Spending Review.”

If the £13.2bn commitment is met, it would support the installation of 1.2 million heat pumps, one million solar arrays, and insulation upgrades for 2.7 million roofs and walls, according to thinktank E3G. It would also create 9,000 extra skilled jobs annually across the UK, the group claimed.