PHAM NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026 20 Renewable Energy


Giving the green light to effi ciency upgrades


As part of the ongoing to drive to net-zero, the government has recently introduced a number of schemes to encourage households and landlords to invest in renewables and other energy effi ciency measures, but how eff ective are they likely to be? asks Simon Bones from Genous.


E


arly in the year, the Warm Homes Plan (WHP) outlined the government’s plans for home


energy effi ciency increases for existing homes (retrofi t), the Future Homes Standard (FHS) laid out the energy effi ciency standards that new properties would need to adhere to, and then announcements for Minimum Energy Effi ciency Standards (MEES) for rental properties looked to sweep up remaining properties. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme


(the £7,500 subsidy for new heat pumps in existing fossil-fuel-heated properties) was extended by one year to 2030, a £1,500 BUS uplift was announced for homes on heating oil or LPG, and BUS was extended to cover air-to- air heat pumps (previously only ‘wet plumbing’ air-to- water systems were eligible). So is everything fi xed


in the world of energy effi ciency improvement? Unfortunately, while all the above are sensible steps, details are sketchy, timing unclear and/or unhelpful, and politics plays more of a role than logic when it comes to detailed implementation.


Some exemptions The fi rst thing to note is that there are exemptions. Landlords have a tougher ask on MEES than they


have today (EPC C rather than E and a bigger cash requirement to hit), but there are plenty of get-outs that the unscrupulous will use to avoid doing works. Also, the new EPC standard


Simon Bones Founder and CEO of Genous


that homes will be able to qualify for is not in operation yet (and we don’t expect to see it anytime soon), so there will likely be nothing much happening until just before the October 2030 deadline, at which point the supply chain may not be able to cope, leaving a huge number of non-compliant properties and no obvious solution. FHS allows for design


ABOUT GENOUS


Genous is a home retrofi t company looking to guide UK homeowners to reduce their carbon footprint, with a focus on energy effi ciency and home decarbonisation. Offering tailored solutions, the company looks to address a property's unique requirements, without pushing any particular technology or solution.


Founder and CEO Simon Bones has combined his expertise in climate change science and energy and infrastructure services with his personal experience of delivering multiple home retrofi ts to help shift the public’s mindset, with a commitment to educating customers and simplifying the transition to a greener future.


parameters to limit the amount of solar put in, and previous experience – where developers routinely added two or three inset panels in a big roof when a much larger array would have cost little more and been far more valuable but was not necessary for securing compliance – suggests this will be commonly used.


Uncertain timelines Then there is timing and certainty. Nesta estimates that the BUS extension to 2030 is not funded at current levels, while we doubt there will be suffi cient cost reductions by that point to make standalone heat pumps aff ordable. The air-to-air subsidy is £2,500 rather than £7,500, while costs aren’t comparably lower, and the subsidy isn’t yet available, with no solid timeline on when it will be, and air-to- water/air-to-air hybrid units awaiting availability. The uplifted oil/LPG BUS


runs out in March next year, as does the current VAT exemption on energy-saving projects. The latter might be extended, but we don’t yet have visibility – good for encouraging uptake now,


 Genous was recently engaged to install solar panels and a battery storage system for a property in Weston-super-Mare


but not the certainty that the industry needs or customers want for their own planning. For the WHP in particular,


detail is missing. Aspirations for ‘no-cost/low-cost’ loans are a worthwhile principle, but there is no detail on how this will be achieved, so customers who might want this type of solution are mostly waiting and not doing works now. When it does come, we doubt that no-cost loans will be an option unless funded by uplifted up-front costs, which the government won’t have the appetite or money to do.


Shifting policies Lastly comes politics.


ECO4 and GBIS were poorly designed and weakly policed schemes, and we don’t miss them, but the sudden removal has meant dozens of companies going under at a time that government wants to encourage green jobs. The lack of certainty, onerous red tape and consumer-favouring rules means most installers are reluctant to staff up, and that puts government targets under pressure. Experience suggests that


when targets are close to being missed, or actually missed, that’s when bad policy comes in to fi x it. Expect weakening of rules, increasing numbers of poor quality players and knee-jerk rules to try to fi x or get out of this. A shift in policy away


from insulation towards technology is sensible in direction (the fabric-


fi rst policy obsession was misguided) but too great a pendulum swing; we suspect lobbying from big energy companies has overinfl uenced policy here. In the short term, although


it benefi ts the industry, the BUS uplift for oil and LPG properties is a good example of this. It’s short-term, not aligned to the capital cost of installing these systems in these properties, and excludes direct electric customers, who have higher costs for heat pumps (because they predominantly lack wet plumbing) and have higher running costs. Oil is currently much cheaper to run than direct electric, even if it is more polluting. We’d also like to see new


policy – a focus on using more stick than carrot on high- consumption households, forcing mortgage lenders to participate more actively, plus policies to address the usual complaints about planning and electricity network company works. It’s not all doom and


gloom, however. If the government can grasp these issues intelligently and work a way through, protect consumers in the right way while also supporting the industry, then there is much that can be done. We have the tools and interventions to simultaneously green the nation’s housing and make it lower cost to run. We need the legislative framework to support it and the supply chain to deliver it. ◼ phamnews.co.uk/926/43


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