The Labour Party has slashed proposals to boost spending on warm homes, as part of a controversial watering down of its £28bn per year Green Prosperity Plan (GPP).
Under the GPP, announced by shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves in 2021, Labour said it would earmark £28bn during each year of the next parliament for green investment if it forms the next government. This included £6bn per year over a 10-year period on a Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the energy efficiency of 19 million homes by 2035. However, Reeves and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer announced last month that the GPP has been scaled back to £23.7bn over the lifetime of the next parliament. Labour will invest a further £6.6bn through its Warm Homes Plan, but this is barely a third of the £6bn per year previously pledged.
In a briefing document seen by CIBSE Journal, Labour has said the sums it has committed will enable up to five million homes currently below an energy performance certificate C rating to be upgraded. The £6.6bn will be split between energy efficiency grants delivered with local authorities, government-backed zero-interest loans for green home upgrades, and grants to boost the affordability of heat pumps. The GPP also earmarks £8.3bn of capital for Labour’s proposed publicly owned Great British Energy company, including £3.3bn for its Local Power Plan to fund community renewables initiatives.
Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute, said: ‘It is disappointing that Labour has apparently caved into pretty feeble criticism from a government that, itself, is not investing anywhere near enough to secure a pathway to sustainable economic growth.’
