Last government’s retrofit programmes to stay as minister says no time for ‘hiatus’

The new Labour government will build on the series of retrofit policies introduced under its Conservative predecessors rather than replacing them wholesale.

Strong new investment in retrofit has been a major feature of the party’s policy platform for a number of years, with energy secretary Ed Miliband a longstanding champion of measures to improve the energy efficiency of homes.

In a keynote address to the Housing Community Summit this morning, a junior minister in Miliband’s department revealed that existing programmes would remain in place. These include the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Home Upgrade Grant and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, minister for energy consumers, told the conference: “We are very clear that we cannot have a hiatus, and we absolutely need to short ensure that we’re maintaining the supply chain so that we can ramp up delivery for our warm homes plan”.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) plans to bolster these programmes with an additional £6.6bn in funding over the course of the parliament, and Fahnbulleh also pledged to ensure minimum energy efficiency standards are introduced to the private rental sector by 2030.

Fahnbulleh, who was elected to parliament as part of the 2024 intake of new MPs, said the department would take an “area based approach” to retrofit, working  “hand in glove” with housing associations, councils, combined authorities and mayors.

The Peckham MP’s brief in DESNZ includes the aforementioned efficiency schemes, as well as heat networks, demand reduction and energy consumer issues.

“There is a generational opportunity to bring social housing and decarbonisation together, two things that I am very passionate about and that will be absolutely central to the role that I see myself playing in government,” she said.

The minister’s speech was made on the first day of the new housing conference, which is jointly run by the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation.

Before her speech to the conference, Fahnbulleh visited a demonstration zero-bills home which has been built outside the conference centre.