In response to the Government’s Warm Homes Plan published this morning, the think tank, Radix Big Tent’s Housing Commission has welcomed the additional funding for green energy measures but says there is more that could be done to address the health impacts of fuel poverty and poorly insulated homes.

The Commission made a series of recommendations in their Homes without Harm report, which sets out the importance of adapting our existing housing stock to deal with the health-related effects of climate change. Broadly the Government has accepted this need to act in their plan, although a few key policy changes remain unadopted. The announcement did incorporate Commission suggestions such as targeting those on low-incomes, accelerating clean heat, battery storage and the creation of retrofitting jobs; but Commission Chair Alex Notay, CEO of the Housing Forum, suggested the Government should also:

• Remove VAT to make it cheaper for owners and landlords of older homes to undertake environmental renovations, including insulation, window replacement and heating system upgrades – blocking draughts and reducing household energy costs, as well as making their properties healthier to live in. Nearly 300,000 new jobs could be created if a taskforce was set up to tackle the estimated 19 million homes across the UK that need retrofitting, including those being rented.
• Publish as a matter of urgency the Future Homes Standard to address not just cold homes in the winter but overheated housing during anticipated frequent summer heatwaves.
• Introduce clear, consistent and user-friendly gauges that show home-buyers and landlords the link between the fuel efficiency of the property they are purchasing - and health. Not just modelled projections but measures of what their energy bill savings will be over time.

She continued: “It is very encouraging to see the Warm Homes Plan recognise the need to support consumers across the entire housing ecosystem and begin to draw together the threads of housing, energy and finance policy that are needed to address the challenge. 

However, the critical link between housing and health needs even more explicit focus, as do the skills, supply chain and data management to support this specific change.”    

Paul Brocklehurst, a Radix Big Tent Housing Commissioner and Chairman of the Land, Planning and Development Federation also added: “This is a very positive announcement and sits well alongside our most recent piece of research. Our only concern is a potential lack of skills and materials affecting the implementation in the early stages. Level of take-up and therefore demand may not be fully understood for some time.”

Another proposal put forward by the Commission that has not yet been adopted by the Government is the creation of a cross-departmental housing delivery unit to coordinate policy delivery. And coordination may be vital to ensuring the success of the plan. 

Rick de Blaby, Radix Big Tent Housing Commissioner and CEO of Get Living said: "We absolutely applaud the intent of the Government here, but if take up of the initiative is to be optimised, there really has to be a clear and beneficial ‘proposition’ to all the audiences that are to be encouraged to take this up.

That ‘proposition’ has to be nuanced between owner occupiers, housing associations, private landlords, investors and across all elements of the housing sector, all of whom may have slightly different motives and constraints. 

Awareness has to be high too as early successes will create advocacy and momentum. The Government’s role in facilitating a frictionless execution will be critical to the delivery of the potential of the plan for homes and health in the UK”.

The Commission’s third report, Homes without Harm, published in November 2025, warned that climate-related health factors were becoming ever more prevalent in the UK with the well-known threats from winter cold and damp compounded by 3,500 annual excess deaths linked to high summer temperatures. 

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