The Welsh Government published the final Heat Strategy for Wales and its Action Plan in July 2024, alongside its response to the consultation on the draft strategy that ran in the summer of 20231. The Action Plan sets out the near-term actions under the strategy's enabling framework, with responsibility for housing, business, industry and public sector policies assigned to the relevant Welsh Government policy teams1.
The strategy's objectives for homes state that homes should be thermally efficient and "served in the main by heat pumps", with a whole building approach taken to the transition, and that low carbon heat solutions should be affordable both to install and to operate1. A separate objective commits the public sector to working towards net zero by 2030, with all public sector buildings served by low carbon heat solutions1. The strategy also states that Wales will support the use of low carbon hydrogen where it enables a sustainable and just transition, for example at localised hydrogen hubs serving industries dependent on high-temperature processes1.
"This Action Plan is published alongside the final Heat Strategy for Wales and our response to the consultation in the summer of 2024."
On delivery, the document states that implementing the policies will become part of core Welsh Government activity, integrated into existing programmes and areas of responsibility, with no specific delivery programme board or task and finish group established1. It lists existing schemes against the strategy's themes, including the Optimised Retrofit Programme for social housing decarbonisation and fuel poverty, the Warm Homes Programme supporting fuel-poor households with energy efficiency funding and advice, and the Public Sector Low Carbon Heat Grant1. On skills, it notes that the Welsh Apprenticeship Pathway in Energy Management was issued in 20231.
The Action Plan sets out several near-term commitments. These include aggregating Local Area Energy Plan findings into a regional and national picture, uploading key data from those plans to DataMapWales, and preparing a consultation on permitted development rights in which air source heat pumps will form part1. It also commits to ensuring advice available through the Warm Homes Nest scheme is clear on low carbon heating options1.
Why it matters for households
The strategy confirms the direction of travel for how Welsh homes are expected to be heated, with heat pumps named as the main technology for homes and affordability to install and operate set as an objective rather than a settled outcome1. For a household, the practical questions of upfront cost, running cost and whether a heat pump suits a particular property are not resolved by the document; the actions listed are largely about planning rules, data and advice rather than direct funding for individual homes1. The permitted development consultation is the point at which the planning constraints that can affect an air source heat pump installation would be examined1. Existing support routes named in the plan, such as the Warm Homes Programme and the Warm Homes Nest advice service, are aimed at fuel-poor households and at improving understanding of low carbon heating options1. How Welsh homes are heated at present, and the fuel poverty definition and rate in Wales, provide the baseline against which these commitments will be measured.
What happens next
The Action Plan lists near-term steps rather than fixed dates: a consultation on permitted development rights covering air source heat pumps, aggregation of Local Area Energy Plan findings at regional and national level, publication of Local Area Energy Plan data on DataMapWales, and clearer low carbon heating advice through the Warm Homes Nest scheme1. No timetable for these steps is given in the document1.
Sources1 cited
- Heat Strategy for Wales, gov.wales