“Warm Homes Plan must prioritise skills and provide long-term clarity”
Amidst all the excitement around the Warm Homes Plan, some industry stakeholders have highlighted areas that they believe will need more attention.
Scott Sanford, Head of Technical Services & Certification at SNIPEF, the Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation warned that installers’ skills should be central to the Plan.
He said:
Improving insulation, expanding access to solar and heat pump technologies, and targeted support for low-income households are vital steps in delivering warmer homes, tackling long-term energy costs and contributing to net zero objectives. However, the plan lacks explicit and substantial detail about investment in the training and skills development required to deliver quality home upgrades at scale. SNIPEF is clear that without a properly trained and competent workforce, large-scale retrofit and low carbon heating deployment will falter.
He cautioned that the consequences of this approach have been felt before:
Previous government-supported insulation schemes allowed complex work to be carried out by inadequately trained and poorly supervised installers. In practice, this meant almost anyone could undertake publicly funded retrofit work, leading to serious failures, as seen in the recent spray foam insulation scandal, which has damaged homes, blighted homeowners and is now costing millions to resolve. If this programme is to succeed, investment in homes must go hand in hand with investment in people, skills and competence. Quality, safety and consumer confidence must be built in from the start, not dealt with after the damage is done.”
South West heating and renewables specialist Hewer Facilities Management called for clarity in the detail around the Plan for those who will be doing the work.
Stuart Hesk, Director of Heating, (pictured) said:
While the ambition is welcome, the industry is still waiting for the finer operational details. Clarity around funding mechanisms, eligibility and delivery timelines will be critical if contractors are to mobilise at the scale required. The scrapping of EC04 created understandable uncertainty, so confidence will depend on how clearly this programme is defined and sustained.”
He said a clear goal is essential to delivering on the government’s ambitions:
We believe it is achievable, provided the programme is maintained across parliamentary terms and backed by long-term policy stability. The continued support of the BUS grant is particularly reassuring, as it gives businesses just like ours the confidence to invest in skills, training, and new jobs to support the low carbon transition. Overall, this plan signals that the Government is validating its commitment to decarbonisation, and with the right detail and long-term backing it could represent a significant opportunity for households, social housing providers, and the wider industry.”
Stuart also welcomed the focus on making the low-carbon technology more accessible. He said:
We are already working to make retrofit heat pump solutions affordable within the BUS grant, helping to bring installation costs to a level that can compete with, or even undercut, traditional gas boiler replacements. When combined with solar PV and battery storage, these solutions can deliver significant reductions in energy bills for homeowners and social landlords alike.”
