What action is the Welsh Government taking to improve the energy efficiency of Welsh homes?
Our focus this term has been the decarbonisation of the social housing sector and support for lower income households living in inefficient homes. The Welsh Housing Quality Standard 2023 sets out an ambitious 10-year standard to improve the quality of Welsh social homes and the wellbeing of tenants and we have committed £260 million across the term in grant funding for social landlords to decarbonise their stock through the Optimised Retrofit Programme.
Our Warm Homes schemes have helped households across Wales since 2010, with over 198,000 people receiving free energy efficiency advice and over 77,000 eligible households benefiting from measures in their homes. We are working to leverage funding from other schemes by supporting local authorities to maximise coverage of the GB-wide Energy Company Obligation Flex and Great British Insulation Flex schemes in Wales.
We recognise the need to build on this work going forward, to encourage decarbonisation across our entire housing stock. Our Decarbonisation Implementation Group is developing a route map for decarbonising Welsh homes. In the meantime, we are upskilling our workforce and working with supply chains to deliver net zero solutions and continue to work with the Development Bank for Wales to develop a ‘test and learn’ pilot scheme for the able to pay sector.