Labour To Take Warm Homes Plan Into Fight With Tories And Reform
The government announced its Warm Homes plan on Tuesday. (Alamy)
3 min read
Labour figures are confident that their warm homes policies will go down well with the public as they look to make clean energy a dividing line with parties on the right.
On Tuesday, the government announced the details of its £15bn Warm Homes Plan, with some of the details revealed by PoliticsHome earlier this month.
The package, which is designed to reduce household energy bills by helping people shift to cleaner and more efficient energy sources, includes financial support in the form of zero or low-interest loans to install green technologies like solar panels, batteries and heat pumps at home, as well as energy efficiency upgrades for social housing.
The plan is seen as a key element of the government's bid to alleviate cost-of-living pressures, which Keir Starmer has made central to his agenda in 2026. The Prime Minister described the new package of messages unveiled this week as a "turning point". Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whose department is leading on the package, described it as a "national project to turn the tide" on fuel poverty.
Earlier this month, Starmer urged his cabinet to "keep a relentless focus on the cost of living".
Both Reform UK and the Conservatives have sought to attack the Labour government's approach to clean energy and net zero, accusing ministers of fuelling the costs facing households in their pursuit of environmental goals, and calling on the government to rethink national targets in areas like electric vehicles and decarbonisation.
The Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, has vowed to scrap the Climate Change Act if the Tories return to power at the next general election. "Climate change is real. But Labour's laws tied us in red tape, loaded us with costs, and did nothing to cut global emissions," she said in October.
However, Labour figures have told PoliticsHome it is a political fight they are willing to have, pointing to opinion polls consistently indicating public support for net zero policies.
"We believe in empowering consumers to make choices about what works for them, not banning one technology or another," a Whitehall source told PoliticsHome.
"Demand is growing for clean tech, and we want to lean into it by making these products the cheaper choice.
"Labour confidently believes in tackling the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis together, compared to Reform and Tories who want to keep British households locked on the fossil fuel rollercoaster."
YouGov research published in November found that 60 per cent of people supported the government's net zero targets, including over three-quarters of Labour's 2024 vote. Broken down by how they voted at the last general election, Reform voters were the only cohort to oppose the targets, by 67 to 23 per cent, the pollster found.
Ofgem recently confirmed that the energy price cap, which sets the maximum amount suppliers can charge households, would rise by 0.2 per cent from 1 January, meaning that the average household will pay £1,758 a year.
