The challenge we're facing

Britain's draughty homes account for almost a fifth of the country's greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the gas price crisis is driving up heating costs, trapping over three million poorly insulated households in fuel poverty. These cold, inefficient homes contribute to thousands of excess winter deaths annually and cost the NHS between £1.4-2 billion per year treating cold-related illness.

The housing crisis facing Britain requires building hundreds of thousands of new, low-carbon homes whilst upgrading existing housing stock. Local authorities have an essential role in delivering warm, affordable homes in their communities.

What's holding us back?

Short-term funding cycles

Stop-start competitive funding makes it difficult for councils to plan ahead or build skilled retrofit teams. Most councils are delivering schemes in double digits, not the scale we need.

Administrative burden

Fraud management and Delivery Assurance Checks processes are incredibly time-consuming. Costs associated with new PAS standards are eroding available funding.

Inflexible grant criteria

Prescriptive rules don't allow councils to take place-based approaches or empower community energy groups to provide retrofit advice, despite their effectiveness.

What needs to change?

To unlock the potential of local authorities to deliver warm homes at pace and scale, we need:

1. Higher proportion up-front payments: Front-loading grants would improve strategic planning and work stream development, giving councils the confidence to build skilled teams and plan multi-year programmes.

2. Simplify oversight and fraud management: The current process is too complex and time-consuming. DESNZ should review the system to reduce administrative burden on local authorities whilst maintaining appropriate safeguards.

3. Allow greater flexibility in funding use: Enable local authorities to advance retrofit and fuel poverty reduction initiatives in a place-based way, including support for community energy groups and local organisations providing effective advice.

4. Establish a delivery partner group: Create a group of local authorities and delivery partners to provide ongoing practical feedback on programme design and implementation directly to DESNZ.

5. Re-evaluate PAS compliance costs: Either increase funding allocation for these costs or explore ways to make compliance more cost-effective, as current costs significantly erode available funding for actual retrofit delivery.

Following sustained lobbying efforts from the sector, including UK100, the government has confirmed this significant investment. Now we need to ensure it's delivered effectively through empowered local authorities.