The long-awaited Autumn Statement has been revealed after days and weeks of speculation on its content. The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s various announcements have been met with mixed responses across the board, however our focus remains on the decarbonisation of homes.
There was disappointingly little to be seen on new decarbonisation measures. While it’s great to see £6bn for energy efficiency measures from 2025 in the detailed policy paper, but having been announced in last year’s Autumn Statement, this was not new.
Our managing director Gary Lawson said: “The Autumn Statement put a lot of focus on improving lives, so it was disappointing to see the lack of focus on decarbonisation of homes at large. We certainly would have welcome more commitment to this across all housing types, which works towards multiple ends.
“For example, it would have been the ideal time to release Wave 3 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund – particularly in the same week Wave 2.2 marked itself open for applications. This would have maintained policy consistency, placing focus on the benefits of housing decarbonisation and in turn, providing confidence in both the short-term and long-term investments being made throughout the supply chain.
“The release of Wave 3 would have enabled us to immediately continue the momentum of this success with investment in recruitment and innovation – but most importantly it would help us to collectively make a huge difference to the people living in the most fuel-poor homes up and down the country.
“The funding doesn’t just ‘deliver on decarbonisation’, it works to provide lower energy bills and better thermal comfort, combatting fuel poverty and improving health and wellbeing of thousands. We have worked on projects under all phases of the SHDF to date and are currently working on around £145m of energy efficiency upgrades, which supports around 16,500 vulnerable people with an annual energy bill savings of 36 GWh.
“The crucial thing will be to see Wave 3 announced imminently, making sure that the industry can build on the success already delivered, and re-affirm confidence in the market on the government’s goals.”
