Draft Warm Home Discount (England and Wales) Regulations 2026

Pippa Heylings Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2026 General Committees

[Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

We agree that bringing down energy bills is a priority. It is especially necessary given the crisis in the middle east, which exposes families and small businesses once again to soaring fossil fuel prices, as seen in the spike in price for those who must use oil for heating, including in my constituency of South Cambridgeshire. The Liberal Democrats therefore agree with the extension of support through the warm home discount until 2031 to support those in fuel poverty. The Government should also consider other measures, such as tackling the growing energy debt, which is a spiralling crisis in this country, and creating a social energy tariff, for which the Liberal Democrats have long called. It is crucial to ensure that such support, including support from energy suppliers, is targeted to reach those who need it most.

Although the legislation before us updates some important data sharing provisions for the warm home discount, I urge the Minister to learn the lessons of the covid pandemic and the 2022 energy bill crisis and immediately enact a data sharing scheme between more Government Departments—not only DWP but the NHS and others—to determine eligibility. I also urge the Minister to devolve that scheme, where necessary, to local authorities to enable them to deliver targeted support to those who need it most. Meanwhile, we need to urgently decouple gas and electricity prices so that families and businesses feel the benefits of the clean energy transition and are not on the rollercoaster of volatile global energy prices.

We also call for a swifter roll-out of the warm homes plan. The cheapest form of energy is that which we do not use, and an effective insulation programme for struggling families across the country would bring down bills and lift households out of fuel poverty. The Government’s changes to the energy company obligation programme have meant that we have an effective delay of about 18 months to insulation programmes, which has put hundreds of small and medium-sized upgrade and retrofit companies at risk. The changes also potentially mean that this winter a Labour Government does not have an operational national fuel poverty strategy.