Select committee: Energy Security and Net Zero Committee
Recommendation 26
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 resumes work undertaken by the previous Government to prepare a Net Zero and Nature Workforce Action Plan. This should be published by the end of 2025 and include a specific roadmap for meeting the skills needs of the home retrofit sector, including via the Growth and Skills Levy mechanisms. It should also ensure that training courses and qualifications for heating engineers cover work on low carbon heating technologies as part of the core curriculum, rather than an add-on. This should be a cross-government endeavour with the Skills Minister accountable to ensure full engagement between the Office for Clean Energy Jobs, Skills England, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Education. Once it is fully established, Skills England should also prioritise the skills needs of the low carbon retrofit sector. (Recommendation, Paragraph 138)
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".