Citizens Advice published a policy paper, Stepping Up: Reforming protections in the retrofit market, on 17 October 2025, setting out its proposed reforms to consumer protections and quality assurance in the low carbon home improvements market1. The charity, which is one of the statutory energy consumer bodies in the UK, said poor outcomes are damaging household confidence in retrofit and low carbon home energy technologies1.
The paper proposes what it calls an end to end protections and quality assurance framework, built on three principles: independent advice before, during and after installation and throughout any redress process, building on existing statutory advice services; a single quality scheme for the low carbon home improvements market; and regulation to ensure consumers can access a simple redress scheme if things go wrong, underpinned by robust legal enforcement1. Citizens Advice frames the reform as a response to a call from the National Audit Office, and says its aim is to cut complexity and increase positive outcomes1.
"This paper presents our vision for how the government can reform the system of consumer protections and quality assurance"
The paper does not set out draft legislation, a timetable or costings, and none have been reported1. It also does not name which body would run a single quality scheme, or how it would relate to existing schemes such as TrustMark or the Renewable Energy Consumer Code; those details are not in the paper1. The three proposed principles are summarised below.
| Proposed principle | What the paper says |
|---|---|
| Independent advice | Before, during and after installation, and throughout any redress process, building on existing statutory advice services1 |
| Single quality scheme | One scheme for the low carbon home improvements market, to provide high standards for consumers1 |
| Regulated redress | A simple redress scheme if things go wrong, underpinned by robust legal enforcement1 |
Why it matters for households
Retrofit work such as insulation, heat pumps and solar is a significant purchase for a household, and the protections around it determine what happens when a job is done badly or a firm stops trading. The paper's starting point is that poor outcomes are already reducing confidence in these technologies1, which affects whether households treat them as a dependable route to lower bills and less reliance on imported gas. The proposals are aimed at the installer schemes and consumer codes that currently sit between a household and a trader, and at the complaints and redress route when something goes wrong. A single quality scheme and a regulated redress route would, if implemented, change how a household checks a firm and what it can do if the work fails. The paper is a statement of position rather than a change in the rules, so nothing in the current arrangements alters as a result of its publication1.
What happens next
Citizens Advice said it welcomes the government's commitment to reform in this area and looks forward to working together to ensure that announcements in the Warm Homes Plan take an evidence led approach1. No date has been given for those announcements, and no government response to the paper has been reported1.
Sources1 cited
- Stepping Up: Reforming protections in the retrofit market - Citizens Advice, citizensadvice.org.uk