Scottish home upgrade partner calls for action on English Warm Homes Plan

The boss of the group delivering the Warmer Homes Scotland programme has reminded the Westminster government that fuel poverty programmes are ‘not a cost to government, they are an investment,’ as he called for the English Warm Homes Plan to be hastened into action.

Ross Armstrong of Warmworks said that the Warm Homes Plan needed to be implemented as soon as possible, because of the scale of the need. He said:

There are six million homes that need intervention. We don’t need any more pilots. I’m sick to death of pilots!”

Ross was speaking to an audience in Whitehall at the launch of a report by the Social Value Lab that found that the Warmworks Scottish programme of heating and fabric upgrades delivered a ‘social value’ of £2.31 for every £1 invested, in terms of lower fuel costs, decreased carbon emissions, warmer homes and more efficient heating systems.

He said it was ‘on the government to create the right climate and conditions for investment [in the Warm Homes Plan], then the industry will get on with delivering it.”

The report concluded that there was a significant impact on the supply chain too from the Scottish programme – with respondents reporting a steady revenue stream, along with extra recruitment arising from the upgrades. This in turn has led to the supply chain engaging with their local communities, creating jobs and training links with local colleges.

Importantly, the housing upgrades were also shown to positively impact the landlords of properties, who benefited from better relationships with their tenants, who now had improved comfort and reduced energy costs and were generally happier, the report said. There is also a clear benefit in terms of the reduced public cost of having better physical and mental health, the authors added.

Ross emphasised that a key strength of the Scottish programme was the length of its delivery contracts – the scheme has been tendered twice with contracts of up to seven years – and he called on the Westminster government to take a similar line.

He also made it clear that he believed a fabric-first approach is essential to the success of fuel poverty programmes. He said:

Why would I put an electrical appliance in a building that wasn’t optimised for efficiency?”

Caroline Flint, Chair of the Committee on Fuel Poverty, told the meeting that the Warm Homes Plan could also offer significant job opportunities. She said:

There is real earning power in this sector and in the energy sector.” But she warned that there was still too much gender stereotyping in the sector when it comes to recruiting younger workers.

• Ross Armstrong and the Warmworks supply chain will be outlining how they created a template for delivering home upgrades at scale at elementalLONDON in a session on 26 November.