Julie James MS, Minister for Climate Change
We are in a climate emergency and a cost-of-living crisis - both issues hit vulnerable households the hardest, and people who are already struggling with the rapidly increasing costs of food and energy will also feel the disproportionate impacts of more extreme weather. We must take action to address the climate emergency while supporting and protecting the worst off in society.
Today I am pleased to publish the Warm Homes Programme policy statement. It has been shaped and informed by two other documents I am also publishing today, a lessons learned report and the government response to the consultation we conducted last year. These documents can be found at Next iteration of the Warm Homes Programme: review and recommendations report.
It is important the new Warm Homes programme learns from our experiences of the past and reflects the views of our important stakeholder community, including recommendations from the Climate Change, Energy and Infrastructure, and the Equality and Social Justice Committees.
The new scheme will tackle both the climate emergency and fuel poverty. In line with the Government’s commitment to ensure a just transition to net zero, it will focus on supporting the worst-off households in the poorest condition buildings in the owner occupied, private rented and housing co-operative sectors.
The Welsh Government has a strong record in improving the energy efficiency of people’s homes. Over the last 12 years, more than £420m has been invested to improve home energy efficiency through the Warm Homes Programme, benefitting more than 73,000 lower income households.
More than 176,500 people have received energy efficiency advice through the Warm Homes Programme since its launch in 2011.
Building on the impact already achieved, I will publish a tender specification for the procurement of a new, demand led scheme shortly.
We will transition to the new scheme ensuring continuity of support for fuel poor households. As such I have extended the current Nest contract to guard against any unforeseen delays and to ensure there will be no gap in provision between the new and existing programmes.