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- Spokesman confirms plans to add an extra £1.5bn to the Warm Homes Plan, bringing the total to £15bn
- Help for homeowners to reportedly include cheap loans for solar
- Warm Homes Plan is set to be announced this month after being delayed
The government is set to invest £15bn into the long-awaited refreshed Warm Homes Plan, including new low-cost loans to help homeowners install solar panels and batteries, according to reports in The i Paper.
Reports suggest that one-third of that money will have to eventually be paid back to the Treasury. This follows reported rows between Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Chancellor Rachel Reeves over funding for low-carbon homes.
A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero was quoted by The i Paper confirming that the government was putting an extra £1.5bn into the Warm Homes plan, increasing the overall amount to £15bn.
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The spokesman described it as “the biggest public investment to upgrade homes and tackle fuel poverty”, claiming that the government is “doubling down support for home upgrades”, promising to soon tell how it plans to help households.
There isn’t a huge amount of detail yet, and there won’t be until the Warm Homes Plan is published, but new loans will fill part of the gap left by the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, which Reeves said will be shelved after it expires on 31 March 2026.
The i Paper has speculated that the cheap loans could be similar to programs run by local councils which have offered loans of up to £20,000, which are repaid over 20 years.
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According to reports, the plan’s priority will be to cut costs for consumers, and not just cutting carbon emissions. As well as solar panels and batteries, the plan could also include ‘green mortgages’ for homeowners who want to use part of the money they borrow to make their homes more energy efficient. A more energy efficient house makes for lower energy bills, which means homeowners are less likely to fall behind on mortgage repayments.
What is the Warm Homes Plan?
The Warm Homes Plan is a major government initiative designed to help homeowners cut their energy bills through clean energy, such as solar panels, batteries, double glazing, heat pumps, and insulation.
It covers all the major grants for clean energy, including the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and until the 31 March 2026, ECO4.
Originally due to be published in the Autumn, the refreshed Warm Homes Plan is expected to be published later this month.
Why was the ECO4 scheme scrapped?
The ECO4 scheme was scrapped after reports of fraud and misuse that left thousands of homes with bad insulation. A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) in October 2025 found that insulation companies were ‘gaming the system’ and that the industry needed more oversight.
The decision was announced in last year’s Autumn budget, after Reeves announced it cost households £1.7bn a year on their energy bills. She added that with 97% of families in fuel poverty, the scheme has cost more than it has saved.
“It is a failed scheme, so, I am scrapping that scheme along with taking other legacy costs off bills,” she says. “As a result, I can tell you today that, for every family we are keeping our promise to get energy bills down and cut the cost of living with £150 cut from the average household energy bill from April.”
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