You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
NHF calls on Labour Party to bring in long-term retrofit funding
The National Housing Federation (NHF) has urged Labour to bring in long-term funding for decarbonisation and retrofit after Keir Starmer revealed his party’s plans for a publicly-owned clean energy company.
“We welcome the ambition of a Warm Homes Plan. Housing associations are already leading the way on energy-efficient homes,” the NHF wrote in a post on X.
“But we need long-term funding, including a bolstered Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and policy certainty to retrofit all homes to meet net zero by 2050.”
READ MORE
At the end of last year, the government announced that it was allocating an extra £1.25bn to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), along with an extra £1.5bn for its heat pump upgrade scheme.
The additional funding for the SHDF will be used to support the retrofitting of up to 140,000 social homes.
At the time Tracy Harrison, chief executive of the Northern Housing Consortium, warned that the scale of the package is “not enough to tackle the huge energy efficiency mountain we must climb”, with 3.8 million Northern homes still below Energy Performance Certificate Band C and requiring upgrading.
Labour’s proposed company, dubbed Great British Energy, is central to the party’s environmental policy.
It would be headquartered in Scotland, generating renewable power as well as managing clean power projects and paid for via a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.
Labour downgraded its Warm Homes Plan to insulate 19 million homes over a decade in February, instead opting to cover five million homes over five years.
It also watered down plans to spend £28bn per year on decarbonisation in the first five years of government.
The Labour Party did not respond to Inside Housing’s request for comment.
Sign up for our asset management newsletter
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters
