At The City Energy Network, we strongly welcome the broader ambition of the Chancellor’s forthcoming Budget to ease household energy bills and support our national economy. That ambition must not, however, come at the direct expense of vital investment in home energy efficiency and low-carbon upgrades.
Cutting funding for the Warm Homes Plan or reducing the contribution from programmes such as Energy Company Obligation would undermine not only our drive to decarbonise the UK’s housing stock, but also our ability to permanently lower household bills, protect the most vulnerable, and preserve jobs right across the supply chain. As recent analysis has shown, past reductions in efficiency investment have resulted in higher consumer costs and supply chain disruption.
A properly funded approach to insulating and upgrading homes is no longer a discretionary add-on it is a core driver of affordability, energy security and growth across the UK. While direct support to bills can help address immediate pressures, it does not replace the enduring benefits of investment in efficiency and heat decarbonisation.
We therefore urge the Treasury to stand behind the full commitment to the Warm Homes Plan, protect the funding framework for energy efficiency, and provide the clarity and certainty the industry needs to deliver. In doing so, we will see not only warmer, more efficient homes for the least advantaged, but a thriving supply chain, long-term cost reductions for all bill-payers, and a stronger foundation for the UK’s net-zero ambitions.
