Martin McCluskey’s Warm Homes Plan speech explained

On 25 June 2026, in a speech published by GOV.UK after the Housing 2026 conference in Manchester, Energy Consumers Minister Martin McCluskey tried to do two things at once. He set out the government’s Warm Homes Plan as a major piece of energy policy, and he asked people to see cold, damp housing as a question of health, inequality and dignity, not only bricks and boilers. (gov.uk) If you have ever wondered why ministers keep putting housing and energy in the same sentence, this speech is a useful guide. McCluskey’s main point was simple: when homes waste heat, families lose money, children lose comfort and the country stays exposed to gas price shocks from outside events it cannot control. (gov.uk)

He opened with his own story. McCluskey told the Manchester audience he grew up in a council flat in Greenock, near Glasgow, with three generations of his family living under the same roof over roughly 70 years. In Common Room terms, that matters because it turns a policy speech into a reminder of what a secure home can do. It gives children stability, adults breathing room and families a sense of pride. (gov.uk) That personal story also carried the speech’s moral argument. McCluskey said children are still growing up in homes marked by damp, mould and fuel poverty, and he directly linked that reality to the death of Awaab Ishak in 2020. The point was clear: poor housing is not an unfortunate side issue. It can be deadly. (gov.uk)

The wider problem is not hard to see. In the speech, McCluskey said 40% of homes were built before the Second World War, and the Warm Homes Plan says the UK has the oldest housing stock in Europe. Older homes are often harder and costlier to heat, especially when they rely on gas and have weak insulation. (gov.uk) **What this means:** fuel poverty is not only about a high bill landing on the doormat. It is also about the building itself. If walls, roofs and windows let heat escape, families can cut back all they like and still end up cold, in debt or both. That is why this plan mixes immediate bill support with longer-term home upgrades. (gov.uk)

McCluskey used the speech to show that the government’s answer is not just cash support. He pointed to the new Decent Homes Standard, Awaab’s Law in social housing and the Renters’ Rights Act in the private rented sector as proof that ministers are trying to change the rules as well as the funding. GOV.UK guidance says Awaab’s Law requires social landlords to investigate serious damp and mould and other emergency hazards within set deadlines, while the Renters’ Rights Act changed how private renting works from 1 May 2026. (gov.uk) That matters because you cannot solve a housing problem with grants alone. If a tenant has little power over a dangerous home, or if a landlord can drag out repairs without consequence, warmer homes stay a slogan. One of the speech’s strongest ideas was that standards, enforcement and tenant protection belong in the same conversation as energy bills. (gov.uk)

Then came the spending promise. The Warm Homes Plan, published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in January 2026, sets out £15 billion of public investment to upgrade up to 5 million homes and help lift up to 1 million households out of fuel poverty by 2030. The plan covers insulation, solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and other measures designed to make homes cheaper to run. (gov.uk) **What it means for you:** this is not only about climate targets. It is also a cost-of-living plan. GOV.UK says some upgraded homes could save hundreds of pounds a year on energy bills, which explains why ministers keep presenting warmer homes as protection against future energy shocks as much as a move towards cleaner power. (gov.uk)

McCluskey broke the offer into two tracks. For low-income households in fuel poverty, he said around £5 billion of support would go towards upgrades that people would not have to pay for themselves. For households that are not eligible for fully funded work, the Warm Homes Plan includes £1.7 billion for low- and zero-interest consumer loans, with extra support through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. (gov.uk) The speech also spent time on trust, which is sensible. Home upgrades are disruptive, technical and expensive, and past schemes have left some people doubtful. That is why, from 2027, the Warm Homes Plan says a new Warm Homes Agency will offer clearer advice and simpler routes to funding, while the wider system is being tightened after problems linked to ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme. (gov.uk)

Another important part of the speech was about standards for the future, not only repairs for the present. McCluskey said rented homes would be expected to reach EPC C by 2030. If that phrase sounds dry, it is simply a shorthand for a better energy efficiency rating. The Warm Homes Plan says landlords in the private rented sector will need to meet EPC Band C by October 2030 unless exempt, while new homes should come with solar panels, high energy efficiency and clean heating as standard under the Future Homes Standard. (gov.uk) This is the bit that often gets lost when politicians talk about bills. Retrofitting old homes matters, but so does stopping tomorrow’s housing from becoming another repair backlog. If new homes are built badly now, today’s answer becomes tomorrow’s expensive fix. (gov.uk)

McCluskey was also keen to say this should not be a ‘Whitehall knows best’ scheme. He told the conference that councils, combined authorities and mayoral authorities would be central to delivery, and existing funding for the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3 has already been allocated across 2025/26 to 2027/28. The Warm Homes Plan itself says low-income help will first run through current schemes before being folded into a single scheme from 2028. (gov.uk) He illustrated that with a smaller story. In the speech, he described visiting Jason in Bristol, who proudly showed him a spreadsheet of savings after getting a heat pump and solar panels through local grant funding. That is a useful note to end on. Big housing plans only feel real when people can point to a warmer kitchen, a lower bill and a home they are proud of. Until then, the Warm Homes Plan remains a promise waiting to be tested, especially in the places where cold and damp have done the most harm. (gov.uk)