The Government’s Warm Homes Plan sets the direction for improving energy efficiency, tackling fuel poverty and decarbonising homes over the long term. For the Midlands Net Zero Hub (MNZH), the Plan provides an important context for its work supporting local authorities and partners across the region.

MNZH is funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to help build strong local pipelines of net zero projects, including domestic retrofit and low‑carbon heat. In that sense, the ambitions of the Warm Homes Plan are closely aligned with the Hub’s existing role.

The Hub does not design national policy or physically install measures directly. Instead, it supports local partners by leading consortiums, sharing insight, building capacity and helping to make sense of how national policy can be applied locally. The Warm Homes Plan offers greater clarity on direction and scale, which can help local authorities plan and develop more robust, long‑term approaches to housing retrofit.

The Hub receives funding from DESNZ to carry out its core enabling role, while also holding funding from separate DESNZ programmes that are awarded through separate application processes. Although these funding streams are distinct, the shared departmental source means MNZH must continue to be clear and transparent about its role, ensuring that support to partners remains impartial and region‑wide.

This balance presents both opportunities and challenges. On the opportunity side, the Warm Homes Plan provides a stronger national framework that MNZH can help local authorities navigate, offering consistency while recognising local circumstances. It also creates space for learning from delivery in the Midlands to inform future programme development. At the same time, MNZH must manage a complex funding and policy landscape, maintain trust with a wide range of partners, and ensure that its support is fairly provided whilst maximising the delivery and spend of the retrofit programme to ensure as many households are supported as possible. Strong governance, clear communication and a focus on regional and local benefit remain central to this approach.

The Midlands Net Zero Hub has been delivering elements of the Warm Homes Plan for just over a year in collaboration with Local Authorities and Social Housing Providers, and has led the national management and delivery of Warm Homes Skills Programme with its consortium of Training Providers. 

Warm Homes Skills Programme

The Warm Homes Skills Programme (WHSP) is a government-funded, England-wide initiative delivered regionally by the Midlands Net Zero Hub to expand and upskill the workforce needed to deliver the Warm Homes Plan and wider retrofit programmes. Backed by up to £8 million of funding in Phase 1, the programme is supporting subsidised or fully funded training for up to 9,000 learners between August 2025 and July 2026 across four priority skill areas: PAS 2035/2038-aligned retrofit roles, fabric insulation and solar PV installation, introductory courses for new entrants, and skills for working on non-domestic buildings. WHSP is open to existing retrofit professionals, local authority and housing sector staff, supply chain partners, and people new to the sector, offering nationally recognised qualifications and flexible learning formats to fit around work. By February 2026, more than 4200 learners had signed up and over 1800 had completed training, strengthening local authority capacity, supporting better governance and quality assurance, and helping build a skilled, resilient workforce capable of delivering high-quality retrofit at scale.

Social Housing Fund Wave 2.1

The onsite delivery for this project ended on the 31st of March 2026 and over 3200 properties have been completed as part of the scheme in the 3 years of delivery to date. We are now working to close down the project with consortium members completing their final lodgements in April and May and the collection and validation of all the project data. Thank you to all our consortium members for all their hard work on this project as it ends. 

Warm Homes Social Housing Fund

We are coming to the end of year 1 of the project with over 1000 properties having started on site to date and over 700 completions this is our most successful first year of a social housing project to date. A thank you goes out to all our consortium members for their hard work in getting mobilised in year one of the project. We are also in the position that we are bidding for additional grant funding for this project to spend in FY26/27 and we are expecting to hear back on this application by the end of May.

Warm Homes Local Grant

The Midlands consortia, which is made up of 48 LAs within 26 delivery projects, have concluded their first year of delivery of this 3-year scheme with installations of 750 measures being completed on 375 homes so far. The total grant funding spend for FY25/26 is currently being reconciled but is expected to be c.£7m. There is a strong pipeline of homes ready to hit the ground running in the second year of delivery and LAs are looking forward to being able to take full advantage of the summer months for maximum delivery.

As we move into the next phase of delivery, the Midlands Net Zero Hub will continue to provide clear, impartial and practical support to partners across the region. Our focus remains on enabling strong delivery now, building long‑term capacity, and supporting local authorities to maximise impact for households and communities. We look forward to continuing this work together.