21 Mar 2025
CIH response to Department for Energy Security and Net Zero consultation on expanding the Warm Home Discount Scheme, 2025 to 2026
Although CIH works across the entire housing sector, a significant proportion of our members work in social housing. As a sector whose overarching mission is to provide warm and safe homes, energy (un)affordability is a core concern of many of our members, and we work closely with them to share good practice and support housing professionals to tackle the causes and consequences of fuel poverty in their day-to-day work.
We therefore welcome the opportunity to respond to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ) consultation on expanding the Warm Home Discount, and support the proposals. We have responded to relevant individual questions below.
We agree with the principle of broadening the rebate to as many groups as possible who do not directly pay bills to an energy supplier.
As the professional body for the housing sector and with many of our members working for housing associations and local authorities, we would particularly like to see the rebate broadened to social housing tenants who do not have a relationship to a domestic energy supplier. Our research has shown that persistently low household incomes, low levels of savings and financial resilience, and the inadequacy of support provided through the benefits system are fundamental drivers of energy unaffordability and debt in the social housing sector. According to government statistics, 22.7 per cent of social rented households received the rebate in 2023/24, reflecting the lower household incomes and high level of need in the sector. However, social rented households without a relationship to a supplier miss out on this support at present, despite likely having a similar level of need. We therefore strongly support expanding the rebate to social housing residents supplied via their landlord.
We agree.
We note the consultation document states budget could be used to support this scheme at the expense of other Industry Initiatives. To the greatest extent possible, we would encourage DESNZ to try and achieve a balance between expanding the rebate and protecting the other activities undertaken through the Industry Initiatives scheme.
Funding this scheme at the expense of other Industry Initiatives would risk reducing the amount of people who receive other forms of assistance through Industry Initiatives, such as energy efficiency measures, debt assistance, energy advice, and benefit entitlement checks. These forms of assistance can lead to positive financial impacts above and beyond the provision of a one-off rebate, including unclaimed benefits income and the permanently lower bills that accompany the installation of more efficient heating systems. They also reach fuel poor and vulnerable households that are not eligible for the rebate, especially those not on benefits.
The scheme should therefore seek to be proportionate and achieve a balance between providing the rebate to more households without a relationship to a supplier, and protecting the other vital activities undertaken through Industry Initiatives as much as possible.
For more details on the consultation please visit DESNZ's website.
For more information on our response please contact Matthew Scott, senior policy officer, matthew.scott@cih.org.
