Government efforts to improve energy efficiency in the existing housing stock have been slow and expensive. The grants available are too complicated to administer and have had to be applied for on a household-by-household basis, with those that do wish to upgrade required to cover a large part of the upfront costs. This has resulted in millions of homes not applying for the grants to which they are eligible and those unable to find the cash for upfront installation costs being excluded.

In addition, such a variety of organisations are responsible for the delivery of energy efficiency improvements, including the Warm Front Scheme and the Energy Saving Trust, that effective joined up action is prevented and the costs of bureaucracy increased. To quickly install basic energy efficiency measures in every household that needs them, the structures of energy efficiency finance and delivery have to change. Warm Homes makes recommendations on how to achieve this.