In January 2026, government published its Warm Homes Plan, which it claims will cut bills, tackle fuel poverty, create jobs, deliver energy security and help tackle the climate crisis.
Buildings are the second-largest source of emissions in the UK, after transport, and fossil-fuel heating is by far the largest contributor to those emissions. Reliance on gas left the UK particularly exposed to the impact of the global energy crisis, which caused gas prices – and energy bills – to soar.
The Warm Homes Plan sets out £15bn of investment over the course of the current parliament to drive uptake of low-carbon technologies. A key focus of the plan is energy security and cost savings for UK households.
The government says its plan will “prioritise” investment in electrification measures, such as heat pumps, solar panels and battery storage. This is where most of the funding is targeted.
One third of the total funding – £5bn in total – is aimed at low-income households, including social housing tenants. This money will be delivered in the form of grants that could cover the full cost of upgrades.
The plan highlights solar panels, batteries and “cost-effective insulation” for the least energy-efficient homes as priority measures for this funding, with a view to lowering bills.
Heat pumps are described in the plan as the “best and cheapest form of electrified heating for the majority of our homes”.
Rooftop solar panels are highlighted in the plan as “central to cutting energy bills”, by allowing households to generate their own electricity to power their homes and sell it back to the grid.
Rooftop solar is expected to make a “significant contribution” to the government’s target of hitting 45-47 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity by 2030. As it stands, there is roughly 5.2GW of solar capacity on residential rooftops. Taken together, the government says the grants and loans set out in the warm homes plan could triple the number of homes with rooftop solar from 1.6m to 4.6m by 2030.
It says that this is “in addition” to homes that decide to install rooftop solar independently.
The Warm Homes Plan says that the government will publish its “future homes standard” for new-build properties, alongside necessary regulations, in the first quarter of 2026.
