- Warmer Homes London (WHL) will see the Mayor of London and London Councils work in partnership with London boroughs and housing associations to unlock millions of pounds from a national pot of £1.79bn to spend on energy saving measures for the most vulnerable residents in the capital.
- WHL will make London’s homes greener and turbocharge the installation of insulation, solar panels and heat pumps across the capital.
- The Mayor of London and London Councils are funding Warmer Homes London together, with the Mayor investing £10m to establish a new hub to ensure that the programme is delivered at pace. London boroughs are also investing £400,000 in start-up costs.
- London boroughs and housing associations have committed to match national funding, to make tens of thousands of homes across London more energy efficient and save Londoners money on their bills.
- The new ‘one-London approach’ will for the first time offer councils a certain, long-term funding stream to retrofit homes in their boroughs.
Today the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and London Councils launched a new programme to transform the approach to making the capital’s homes warmer and more energy efficient and reducing Londoners’ energy bills. Warmer Homes London (WHL) will forge bolder ways to upgrade London’s homes as part of the retrofit revolution.
WHL is being rolled out in partnership with London boroughs and housing associations to make homes across London warmer, cheaper to run and more energy efficient.
The Mayor will invest almost £10 million over four years through WHL, which will for the first time provide a central hub for green housing funding and information. Until now, boroughs have had to apply for funding individually, led by the Government’s funding rounds. This created costs and long-term uncertainty. WHL will create a ‘one-London approach’, forming a close link with Government and providing reliable, long-term funds to boroughs, meaning they will have the certainty they need to progress retrofit works in their area. The new ‘hub’ will enable a more co-ordinated approach with Government, increasing bargaining power with Ministers and enabling homes to be improved at a larger scale and faster pace.
The initiative will help thousands of Londoners save money on their energy bills by funding energy efficient measures such as better insulation, replacing of fossil fuel heating and the introduction of heat pumps. Social landlords (organisations such as local authorities and housing associations who provide affordable housing for rent without a profit), low income owner occupiers and low income private tenants can access the opportunity to take part in the initiative. This will ensure that Londoners who are most vulnerable to fuel poverty will be able to benefit from the funding, whether they rent or own their home.
WHL will help secure funding from the Government’s Warm Homes Social Fund and Warm Homes Local Grant funding streams, which is a total national amount of £1.79bn during 2025–2028. WHL will focus on installing energy saving measures in low income private housing.
London’s homes are responsible for one third of the capital’s carbon emissions and many are not energy efficient, meaning they cost more to warm up in the winter and lose heat quickly. They can also be uncomfortably hot during summer heatwaves. High living costs and rising fuel prices have meant that even more Londoners now face fuel poverty, with many people having to choose between heating their home or spending money on food. In social rented homes with poor energy efficiency, 56 per cent of households are living in fuel poverty*. Making these homes more energy efficient is a key part of London’s efforts to tackle the climate emergency.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:
“Londoners have been struggling for years with sky-high energy bills. Warmer Homes London will help Londoners save money on their bills by making their homes more energy efficient and cheaper to heat.
“By working in close collaboration with local councils and housing associations, Warmer Homes London will enable us to upgrade more homes, and do it more quickly avoiding unnecessarily long wait times for home improvement works.
“Making our homes more energy efficient is a priority for me, but also the new government. Through this new initiative we will be able to unlock more national funding from the Government for homes in London. Together, we can build a better, safer and greener London for everyone.”
Cllr Claire Holland, Chair of London Councils said:
“With 379,000 households in London living in fuel poverty, taking action to make homes in our city warmer and more energy efficient is vital for our residents’ health, wellbeing and finances.
“Warmer Homes London will bring together London boroughs, the Mayor of London, housing associations and government to drive this work forward. It aims to unlock millions of pounds of investment to deliver improvements to tens of thousands of homes across London, making them more energy efficient, reducing their environmental impact and saving Londoners money on their bills.
“Warmer Homes London is a perfect example of how tackling the climate emergency and improving the lives of our residents go hand-in-hand, with joint working across all levels of government vital to achieving this.”
Minister for Energy Consumers Miatta Fahnbulleh said:
“Everyone deserves to live in a warm, comfortable home.
“Warmer Homes London marks an important step towards making thousands of homes cheaper to run for Londoners with clean energy, while cutting fuel poverty across the capital.
“It will also support delivery of our Warm Homes Plan, which is set to benefit up to 300,000 homes with energy saving upgrades this financial year.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
*Annual fuel poverty statistics in England, 2024 (2023 data) (publishing.service.gov.uk), p.37.
The Government have committed £1.79bn between 2025 and 2028. This is made up of £1.29bn from the Government’s Social Housing Fund and £0.5bn of local grant funding.
Green Finance Fund:
The Green Finance Fund (GFF) will look to lend up to £500m to projects working towards London’s net zero ambitions.
The aim of the Fund is to accelerate decarbonisation in London by lowering the cost of borrowing for organisations, and provide flexible loans to support partners to accelerate towards Net Zero 2030.
Energy Efficiency Fund
The Green Finance Fund sits alongside the existing Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF), which is an investment fund to deliver low carbon, sustainable projects and infrastructure London needs to tackle the climate emergency. The MEEF was established by the Mayor in 2018 with funding from the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Amber Infrastructure.
Low Carbon Accelerator programmes
The Mayor of London’s Low Carbon Accelerator programmes provide free support to help public sector organisations to decarbonise their energy supply, as well as save energy, carbon and money from their buildings and assets. These programmes include the Local Energy Accelerator, the Retrofit Accelerator – Workplaces (RA-W) and the Retrofit Accelerators – Homes (RA-H).
The Local Energy Accelerator (LEA) provides grant funding for consultancy work to help recipients develop medium to large-scale renewable energy or low carbon heat network projects, decarbonising supply of energy to buildings.
The Retrofit Accelerator - Workplaces (RA-W) provides support in the form of technical assistance directly to organisations to help clients develop projects and enables the production of feasibility studies and a streamlined route to delivery of capital works funded by the clients.
The Retrofit Accelerator – Homes (RA-H) provides London boroughs with the technical expertise they need to kick-start ‘whole-house’ retrofit projects across the capital. It also helps build a network of suppliers and opportunities to accelerate the much-needed retrofitting of private homes.
For more details see: Low Carbon Accelerators
Warmer Homes London is just one of the ways the Mayor is increasing and improving homes. This builds on previous mayoral interventions including the Mayor’s Warmer Homes Programme and the Warmer Homes Advice Service.
Mayor’s Warmer Homes programme
The Mayor’s Warner Homes Programme ran from 2018 to 2025 has improved the homes of over 5,100 fuel poor and low-income Londoners.
Londoners on a low income or those in private tenancies could apply for grants of between £5,000 and £25,000 to make their homes warmer, greener and cheaper to run.
Mayor’s Warmer Homes Advice Service
The Mayor’s Warmer Homes Advice Service funds free local energy advice services for vulnerable Londoners and those on low incomes and has supported more than 24,000 households with advice and support to lower their energy bills.
London Councils and London’s local authorities have been working together to improve the energy efficiency and comfort of London’s homes. Warmer Homes London builds on this experience. Previous activity includes:
Retrofit London
Retrofit London was established in 2021 as a partnership of London’s boroughs working to tackle fuel poverty and improve the energy efficiency of London’s homes. In 2021 Retrofit London published the UK's first city-wide plan for scaling retrofit, the Retrofit London Housing Action Plan. It has provided skills training, research, guidance and support to council landlords.
Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund
Since 2021 London’s boroughs and housing associations have improved the homes for over 10,000 Londoners living in social housing by installing insulation, windows and doors, solar PV and air source heat pumps.