Urgent action is needed to upgrade the energy efficiency of some 30 million homes and other buildings in the UK, to avoid missing the Government’s legally-binding target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. However, some fundamental supply chain and skills issues must be addressed to implement the retrofit programme successfully.

The Green Homes Grant voucher scheme has been reported to have suffered from a lack of take up and has now closed (as of 31 March 2021).  However, Energy Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, has recently announced an extra £300m to fund green home improvements such as insulation, heat pumps and solar panels for low income households through the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme and Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator. Plus a further £1bn has been awarded to fund 429 retrofit projects for schools, hospitals and council buildings, through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme. But in addition to this funding, what else needs to be done to ensure the supply chain is in place to make a difference?