Warm Homes Plan

Lord Ashton of Hyde Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Lord Whitehead) (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord and the noble Earl for their contributions on this Statement. I think I can say that both of them were pretty supportive, which is nice for something as large as this. I therefore bank that support, as it were, and will address myself to the very pertinent questions that the noble Lords put forward.

In banking the support, it is worth reflecting on the real scale and the extent to which there are winners all round in the proposal before the House. As the noble Earl, Lord Russell, said, it is £15 billion altogether. I might add that in respect of the total commitment by this Government, this is, all things considered, about two and a half times the total commitment of the previous Administration regarding overall energy-efficient measures. The noble Earl is also right to point out the collapse in measures that took place under the previous Government. Overall, this scheme is determined to get it right not only this time but for all sections of society.

The noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, pointed out what will happen to the 80% who he thought would not be particularly affected by this. When you look at the breadth of the proposals in the warm homes plan, there is indeed something for everybody in it. There are low-cost and interest-free loans for the private sector. For the private rented sector, there is the quite dramatic commitment to make sure that landlords spend £10,000 uprating their properties to what will provisionally be band C EPCs by 2030. By the way, there is no real evidence that landlords have put rents up in relation to their commitments to the previous level of spending £3,500 to increase to band E.

For the social housing sector, there will be grants and particular investments in that form, and, of course, substantial investment in seeking out those in fuel poverty and bringing treatments forward for their homes that will substantially uprate their warmth and decrease their bills. We really will decrease their bills, sometimes quite dramatically, and make sure that those are permanent changes, not just ones that go with the volatility of the energy market.

The noble Earl asked about the whole question of forced labour and solar panels. I appreciate his point. We live in a world in which it is difficult to assess accurately who is doing what as far as forced labour is concerned. In the Modern Slavery Act we already have the wherewithal to take action, if we can identify those circumstances. Certainly, this Government would want to do that. We are collaborating with the Solar Stewardship Initiative, which seeks to have a more accurate spotlight on the issue of forced labour. It is something we are very well aware of. The noble Earl will understand that this is a difficult area to get absolutely right straightaway, but it is work that is ongoing.

The noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, mentioned the ambition for heat pumps. I have a memory, from another time in the other place, about what happened with that ambition. The previous Administration declared a three-year programme for a total of 90,000 heat pumps, underwriting 30,000 per year for three years, up to 2025. Then there was a gap of three years, when nothing would have happened. Suddenly, in 2028 or 2029, there would then be 600,000 heat pumps installed per year—a piece of Guillermo del Toro magical realism, if ever there was one. That is what we are seeking to avoid on this occasion.

We want to have real targets, which we can actually meet. That is also important in terms of investment in UK heat pump manufacture, for example. We need to know that there is a steady market for those heat pumps, where they are increasingly manufactured in Britain—boiler manufacturers turning to heat pump manufacture—and that we have that target in place and we can reach it. With the measures in the warm homes plan—the £7,500 underwriting for heat pumps currently; the new underwriting for air-to-air heat pumps; the ability of heat pumps to be put into area schemes; and low-carbon loans and grants—there is every prospect that we can get to the target of 450,000 in an organised and effective way.

I am conscious that I have not been able to reply to every point that noble Lords made in response to the Statement. If I have missed anything, I will be happy to write to both noble Lords, so that we can have a full set of answers to their questions today.

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Ashton of Hyde) (Non-Afl)]

The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is taking part remotely. I invite the noble Lord to speak.