On 18 December 2023 the UK government announced the details of £6bn in funding for decarbonising homes between 2025 and 2028, a sum first announced in Autumn 20221. The package includes additional money for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and a successor to the Home Upgrade Grant scheme, and is intended to help 200,000 low-income households1.
The announcement was reported by National Energy Action (NEA), the national fuel poverty charity, in its UK Fuel Poverty Monitor, published with Energy Action Scotland1. The charity's account of the funding sits alongside its own analysis of what remains to be done: independent modelling by Gemserv Ltd for the report put the funding gap for energy efficiency measures needed to meet England's legal fuel poverty target at £18bn, falling to £10.8bn if combined with effective regulation of landlords1.
"On 18 December, UK government announced the details of £6bn in funding for decarbonising homes between 2025 and 2028, first announced in Autumn 2022"
The report states that 3 million households in England will still be in fuel poverty by 2030 on current progress, the same number as under the government's official definition at the time of publication1. It also quantifies average yearly household energy bill savings of £480 per year from bringing fuel poor homes up to standard, cumulative household bill savings of £5bn over 2022 to 2030, and an employment impact of 22,000 full time jobs1. The modelling applied a cost cap per property and covers improving 90 per cent of fuel poor homes to energy performance rating C1.
The report's recommendations include committing up to £2bn a year of additional central investment, extending Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards in the private rented sector to EPC C by 2030, and updating fuel poverty strategies across the UK nations1. It notes that England is the only nation in the UK with an energy efficiency-based fuel poverty target1.
Why it matters for households
The £6bn covers the three years from 2025, so it does not change what is available to a household in the current year. The schemes named are aimed at low-income households and social housing rather than at owner-occupiers generally, and the report does not set out eligibility rules, per-property grant amounts or application dates for the successor to the Home Upgrade Grant1. Those details have not been reported.
For a household weighing up home energy grants and schemes in the UK, the practical question is which scheme a home falls under. Support for low-income households in England is covered in help for low-income households in England, while the Home Upgrade Grant was the closed scheme for off-gas homes and its successor is the route the December announcement extends. Social housing tenants and their landlords have a separate strand through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, and owner-occupiers looking at heat pumps are served by the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which is distinct from the funding announced here.
Energy independence at household level in this context means a home that needs less energy to stay warm, so that bills fall and are less exposed to price shocks. The report's £480 average annual saving figure is the measure it uses for that effect1. Its central warning is that the announced funding, on its own modelling, leaves a gap against the legal target, so the number of homes improved may fall short of what the target requires1.
What happens next
The report was published on 29 January 2024, with the full UK Fuel Poverty Monitor due on the charity's website at 5pm on 31 January 20241. The funding it describes runs from 2025 to 20281. No further dates for the individual schemes have been reported.