Reflections from Housing 2026 – Delivering the Warm Homes Plan, 2026-2030
Speaking as part of a panel discussion on the Warm and Healthy Homes stage at last week’s Housing 2026 event, where we explored what the sector needs to consider to make the Warm Homes Plan a success, the seismic scale of it really struck me. With more than £15 billion of total investment to 2030, it’s set to support millions of homes to be warmer, healthier and more energy efficient – lifting over a million households out of fuel poverty.
Fellow panellists Caroline Withey and Shaun Garvey – DESNZ Warm Homes Programme Directors – underlined the importance of this when they shared Bev’s story – a tenant of Wealden Council whose house had been transformed through retrofit. She was genuinely moved by the impact of the work done on her home, that not only made it more comfortable but reduced her energy bills. For me, that is at the heart of what we’re trying to achieve as an industry with the Warm Homes Plan – healthier homes that improve lives.
So how can we ensure that our work creates ‘the Bev effect’? With so many different interventions across social housing that aren’t always joined up, we need to take a holistic asset management approach – using property data to inform maintenance and decarbonisation programmes.
Reflecting on this, three key areas stood out to me that can best drive this shift.
1. Continued certainty in funding
It’s vital that we build the skills the industry needs to retrofit at scale and go beyond fabric to renewables. To do this, housing providers and contractors must have certainty of funding to be able to confidently invest in programmes and people.
The Warm Homes Plan will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and as a contractor, we welcome the funding commitment and are growing and upskilling our workforce to meet that need – looking at where we can invest in the local economies in which we work and create skills and employment opportunities for those that need them most.
2. Delivering quality in retrofit
Ensuring the industry delivers high quality retrofit at scale is critical to maintaining confidence in continued public investment. With the National Audit Office identifying tens of thousands of sub-standard retrofits, the need to prioritise both competency and independent validation has never been greater.
At WPS, we are responding by investing in both. Through our partnership with Greenworkx, we are upskilling teams across retrofit, compliance, and renewable technologies, futureproofing installation and maintenance capability.
Alongside this, we are embedding a data-led, technology enabled approach to quality assurance. Working with Kestrix, we are leveraging thermal imaging, drone surveys, and AI-enabled analysis to move beyond traditional inspection and provide deeper, evidence-based validation of performance. This was demonstrated on our Stevenage Borough Council SHDF Wave 2 project which was independently assessed, confirming the quality and consistency of delivery.
Together, this combination of skills investment, advanced validation, and data-led delivery ensures we can scale retrofit in a way that is trusted, compliant, and demonstrably high quality.
3. Tenant involvement
The outcomes of retrofit work should all be focused on making homes better for people like Bev. As we increasingly work beyond fabric into renewables, a deeper education is required for residents to understand the work and the benefits it will bring them in the long term.
With more than £100 million announced as part of the plan supporting further investment in Solar PV, panels and battery storage installation will continue to scale up. We must ensure that we map and communicate well across the entire resident journey when considering how to not just inform, but involve tenants in the process to fully understand and engage with the changes happening in their home – as well as lifestyle changes they may need to make to maximise energy efficiency measures.
This should extend far beyond just Resident Liaison Officers – every team must consider the resident experience at every point in the programme to best plan the communications touchpoints.
Final thoughts
The extreme temperatures we’ve experienced recenlty underscore the importance of continuing to anticipate growing housing needs in a changing climate. The Warm Homes Plan is a pivotal part of how we ensure we are doing everything we can to deliver homes that support and protect people. Through focusing on these key priorities and continued industry collaboration, I’m proud WPS is a part of making that happen. For social housing providers, the challenge to maintain operational homes is growing. Increasing regulation, rising resident expectations, ageing stock and the urgency of decarbonisation mean every pound invested must work harder.
