To reach net-zero carbon emissions, the UK must transform its housing stock, with most homes needing significant upgrades. Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, Pippa Heylings MP, calls on the government to take seriously the urgent need for ambitious green standards in homes across the country
While the government has prioritised decarbonisation of the electricity grid, its efforts to decarbonise home heating are falling dangerously behind. The UK has some of the least energy-efficient housing in Europe, leaving too many families trapped in fuel poverty – living in Dickensian cold, damp homes.
A recent report by the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee on retrofitting homes for net-zero found that the UK is now 98 per cent below the trajectory for home energy efficiency upgrades compared to 2010. These delays aren’t just costing our climate budgets – they’re also driving up household energy bills.
We are still paying the price for the previous Conservative government’s failure to invest in home decarbonisation. The scrapping of the Zero Carbon Homes standard in 2016 has cost families dearly: analysis shows that those living in new-build homes since then have collectively paid an extra £5bn in energy bills between 2017 and 2025.
Too often, new homes are still being built to outdated standards – connected to gas, lacking proper insulation to stop heat loss, without solar panels, and ill-equipped to withstand flooding, drought and overheating.
In January, my Liberal Democrat colleague Max Wilkinson MP introduced a Private Members’ Bill that would have required all new developments to include solar panels. The government failed to support it. More recently, Liberal Democrat MP Gideon Amos proposed an amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to mandate net-zero carbon building standards, including solar power. Once again, the government voted it down.
The cost of giving into house builder lobbying and failing to set a high bar for new developments has been made clear by the previous Conservative government – leaving families in Britain with more poor-quality homes, more dependent on foreign gas and therefore more exposed to the highly volatile gas markets during the ongoing energy crisis. The Labour government must not make the same mistake.
“Too often, new homes are still being built to outdated standards”
We urgently need a robust Future Homes Standard to ensure that new homes are warm, cheap to heat and produce zero emissions. But this alone is not enough. Over 80 per cent of the homes that will be occupied in 2050 have already been built. If we are serious about reaching net-zero, we must also invest in upgrading the UK’s existing housing stock.
While it’s welcome that the government is looking to reinstate winter fuel payments for some pensioners, a longer-term fix is for the government to honour its promise to fix Britain’s cold, leaky homes. In the 2025 Spending Review, the government committed to a £13.2bn investment in the Warm Homes Plan. Research shows investment in warm homes would support areas with the highest deprivation, cut household energy bills and create thousands of skilled jobs – all while making the UK more resilient to global energy price shocks.
It would also be a huge step forward in reducing emissions: supporting the installation of over one million heat pumps, a million solar panel arrays and insulation upgrades for nearly three million roofs and walls.
Instead of the stop-start measures we’ve seen in the past, the government must send a clear, consistent signal to businesses delivering home upgrades: “we’re backing warm homes” – to cut energy bills, strengthen the UK’s energy security and improve people’s lives. In the middle of a cost of living crisis, there’s no time to waste.
References
1. Energy Security and Net Zero Committee; Retrofitting homes for net zero. https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/48054/documents/251274/default/
2. Energy & Climate Intelligence unit; Families in new builds saddled with extra £6,000 energy bill. https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2025/families-in-new-builds-saddled-with-extra-6-000-energy-bill
3. E3G; The Warm Homes Plan will boost UK finances. https://www.e3g.org/publications/the-warm-homes-plan-will-boost-uk-finances/#
