Select committee: Energy Security and Net Zero Committee
Recommendation 7
1st Report - Retrofitting homes for net zero
Published 22 May 2025
Addressed to Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Energy Security and Net Zero Committee Retrofitting homes for net zero All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend that the Government establishes a national warm homes advice service for England to signpost consumers to independent advice, trusted installers and financial options. This should be available online, over the phone and in person. While it may be publicly-funded at first, it should be affiliated with a retrofit workforce accreditation scheme that can signpost consumers to trusted installers and provide a model for the service to become financially self-sustaining over time. A pilot should be launched ahead of winter 2025. (Recommendation, Paragraph 53)
From: Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, 1st Report - Retrofitting homes for net zero (HC 453), 22 May 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 18 August 2025 (deadline 22 July 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response sets out much of its position through the forthcoming Warm Homes Plan, recognising several of the Committee's concerns while giving a longer timeline on gas network work and expressing scepticism on one funding proposal.
- On long-term retrofit support, the government states that £13.2 billion "has been committed" to the Warm Homes Plan over 2025/26 to 2029/30, with allocations for individual programmes to be set out "by October this year".
- On Energy Performance Certificates, the government is reforming them and "expects" changes to the metrics to be introduced in 2026; it will publish its consultation response "in due course".
- On repurposing the gas network, the department "anticipates a longer timeline to be needed than the Committee's recommendation" and will publish a Call for Evidence in 2026.
- On the Heat Training Grant, the government says it is "sceptical about plans to compensate installers for lost earnings", citing the complexity of avoiding "risks of fraud".