MPs on retrofitting homes for net zero — the findings worth your ten minutes

The Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee's inquiry into retrofitting homes for net zero is the sort of document that gets a day of coverage and is then forgotten. It is worth more than that, because the failures it describes at national scale are recognisable at the scale of a single London terrace.

The recurring themes

Across the evidence, the same constraints come up again and again: a shortage of skilled trades and assessors, stop-start funding that makes it irrational for firms to invest in training, consumer confidence damaged by poor-quality work, and a housing stock that is among the oldest and least efficient in Europe.

That last point is the one Londoners feel most directly. A significant share of the capital's housing is solid-walled Victorian and Edwardian stock, plus a large layer of post-war flats. Neither responds to the cheap measures that make national statistics move.

Stop-start funding is the homeowner's problem too

When a scheme runs for two years and then closes, installers do not keep specialist staff on the payroll waiting for the next one. That is precisely what is happening now: ECO4 closes on 31 December 2026 with no replacement obligation scheme, while the Warm Homes Plan builds up a different delivery route through a new agency. Expect a lumpy period in between.

For anyone eligible for ECO4 support, that makes this year genuinely different from previous years. There is no carry-over. Work needs to be actually in progress, not merely intended.

Quality is the thing that protects you

The committee's concern about poor-quality work matches what assessors see on the ground — insulation installed without addressing ventilation, measures fitted to properties that were never suitable, and paperwork that does not survive scrutiny when a house is sold.

The protections are unglamorous but real: PAS 2035 for the process, TrustMark for the installer, MCS for heat pumps and solar, and an independent assessment that is not being done by the company selling you the work. If the same firm assesses, specifies and installs, ask who is checking whom.

If you want the independent half of that, we do assessment only — we do not sell or fit measures. You can book an EPC online or talk to us about a full retrofit assessment.