The government has set out how it will spend up to £2.5bn on improving the energy efficiency of homes and public sector buildings, a strategy announced last September whose allocations were published later. The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA), the industry body whose members carry out building improvement work, gave the plan a cautious welcome1.
Of the total, £630m will go through the Home Upgrade Grant for privately owned properties, and £780m through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund for homes owned by local authorities and other social housing providers. Social housing will also receive a further £1.1bn of match funding from local authorities, social housing providers and charities1.
A further £409m will be spent through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, divided between 114 English public sector bodies, to improve the energy efficiency of hospitals, schools, universities, museums and leisure centres. The government says this forms part of the UK's commitment to reduce emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 20371.
The government believes the scheme will deliver energy efficiency improvements to 115,000 homes with an EPC rating of C or lower, and support 20,000 construction and home retrofit jobs. Funding will be available from April for measures including insulation of lofts and walls, new windows and doors and draught proofing, as well as the installation of heat pumps and solar panels1.
Fox added that one-off installations were not enough, and that retrofit measures must be maintained and serviced throughout their lifetime to keep delivering long-term energy and carbon savings. He said this would require a major step up of investment in training and recruitment to build a competent workforce1.
On the housing stock, government figures cited in the same report put 46% of UK housing at EPC rating C or above, up from 9% in 2008, with 66% of social housing said to meet that standard. Legislation requiring all homes to reach a C rating by 2035 is under consideration1.
Why it matters for households
The money is routed through two different schemes depending on who owns the property, which shapes who can apply. Privately owned homes sit under the Home Upgrade Grant, while social housing tenants depend on their landlord's bid to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund rather than applying themselves. The grants and schemes hub sets out how the main domestic programmes compare, and the full guide to home energy grants covers eligibility routes in more detail.
The measures listed, loft and wall insulation, windows and doors, draught proofing, heat pumps and solar panels, are the fabric and generation upgrades that reduce how much energy a home needs to buy and how much of it comes from the grid. For a household, that is the practical meaning of energy independence: a lower standing demand, and more of the remaining demand met on site. The 115,000-home figure and the EPC C threshold indicate the scheme targets the least efficient properties first, which are typically the most expensive to heat.
BESA's caveat concerns whether savings persist. Insulation and heating systems that are not maintained can lose performance over time, so the long-term effect on bills depends on workmanship and servicing as much as on the initial installation. The association also flags a skills constraint: without enough trained installers, delivery of the stated volumes is in question. It has not been reported how individual households will be selected, what the grant covers per home, or how the £1.1bn of match funding will be distributed.
What happens next
Funding becomes available from April, according to the published details1. The report does not give a closing date for either scheme, nor a timetable for the proposed 2035 EPC C requirement for all homes, which remains under consideration1.