{"id":381175,"date":"2026-01-20T23:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/381175\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T23:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:26:11","slug":"uk-households-to-get-15bn-for-solar-and-green-tech-to-lower-energy-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/381175\/","title":{"rendered":"UK households to get \u00a315bn for solar and green tech to lower energy bills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">First touted back in 2024, the Warm Homes Plan promised to tackle the &#8220;national emergency&#8221; of rising energy bills, but it has taken two years for the final detail to be published.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The government announced that the plan, published on Wednesday, will focus on funding solar panels, heat pumps and batteries for households across the UK via low-interest loans and grants. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">For able-to-pay households even with the grants there are likely to be additional costs of installing the technologies. For a heat pump after the subsidy households pay on average \u00a35,000. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But for an average three bedroom semi-detached home, installing these three technologies, could save \u00a3500 annually on energy bills, it estimates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Although social charity Nesta, and green energy charity, MCS Foundation, <a href=\"https:\/\/mcsfoundation.org.uk\/news\/mandatory-renewables-on-new-builds-would-save-average-household-1300-a-year\/\" class=\"ssrcss-6mgqu7-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">have estimated, external<\/a> it could be more than \u00a31000. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;A warm home shouldn&#8217;t be a privilege, it should be a basic guarantee for every family in Britain,&#8221; said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Measures in the plan include:<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Extending the Boiler Upgrade Scheme by a further year to 2029\/30, offering \u00a37,500 grants for heat pumps<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Additional \u00a3600m for low-income households to receive funding for the full cost of solar panels and batteries taking the total available to \u00a35bn<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Low and zero-interest loans for households irrespective of income<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The plan has been strongly welcomed by the energy industry, workers&#8217; unions, and the finance sector, who see the long-term financial commitment by the government as crucial for driving private investment into green technologies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;\u00a315 billion is a substantial commitment, it provides certainty to investors and businesses in the energy market,&#8221; said Dhara Vyas, chief executive of trade body Energy UK. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Camilla Born, CEO of Electrify Britain &#8211; a joint campaign group from Octopus and EDF to encourage switching to electric heating &#8211; also welcomed the announcement and said it will help cut bills long-term but said &#8220;the bad side is that it is a plan, and we need delivery&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Some of the schemes are already distributing grants, but for new funding the government has yet to decide how or when households will receive the money. It  said that &#8220;further engagement with the finance sector&#8221; is needed this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Richard Tice, Reform deputy leader, strongly criticised the plan and said it was: &#8220;A scandalous waste of up to \u00a315bn of taxpayers&#8217; cash primarily buying Chinese made solar panels, batteries and heat pumps, that is bad for British industry.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Two thirds (68%) of the solar panels imported by the UK came from China in 2024, according to HMRC trade data.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The government has said the scheme would contribute to 180,000 new jobs in the clean heating sector &#8211; although some of these are likely to be from retraining existing engineers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First touted back in 2024, the Warm Homes Plan promised to tackle the &#8220;national emergency&#8221; of rising energy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-381175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}