Our energy system is broken. People across the UK are paying sky-high bills and feeling the brunt of living in poorly insulated homes. But the solutions already exist. Find out what we're campaigning for and how we'll win.

12 Dec 2023

The energy crisis has made one thing clear: our housing stock and energy systems are broken. Without rapid, meaningful action, we’ll face continuous hardship. That’s why United for Warm Homes is calling for: 

  1. Urgent support for people dealing with sky-high energy bills. Millions of people are struggling with soaring bills and the rising cost of living. The average energy bill has skyrocketed since 2021, leaving people facing impossible choices between staying warm and putting food on the table. Far more help is needed, through price guarantees, targeted extra payments and fair energy pricing. The government must ensure everyone can afford the energy they need to keep their homes warm.   
  2. A new emergency programme to insulate our heat-leaking homes. Upgrading our homes with insulation is the cheapest and easiest way to permanently reduce our bills and cut emissions. We’re calling on the government to roll out a rapid, street-by-street insulation programme, co-ordinated by councils. This should start with the neighbourhoods hardest hit by the crisis and be provided free of charge in areas where people are living on low incomes. This must be followed with deeper measures to upgrade our homes to ensure they are cheaper and greener to heat by 2030.  
  3. An energy system powered by cheap, green renewables. To end the need for expensive and polluting gas in the long term, we must move to a homegrown, renewable energy system. This will require fitting millions of homes with modern electric-powered heat pumps and a rapid expansion of onshore wind and solar power across the UK, as well as our vast offshore renewable resources.   

See our specific asks for the Welsh government.

Close up of a worker's gloved hands installing cavity insulation in a wall, colleague in the background
Installing cavity insulation © sturti via Getty Images

How we’ll win  

The pandemic showed us that strong and united communities can support each other through even the toughest times. 

That’s why we're supporting people up and down the country to run a local campaign, bringing communities together to help support one another with the impacts of soaring energy costs and demand the right to a warm home. 

Whether you're worried about keeping up with rising bills, passionate about renters' rights or concerned about climate change, we’ll help you find others in your local area and start your own campaign.

The broad timeline for the campaign is: 

  • Autumn/winter 2022: Launch and partnership building  
  • Spring/summer 2023: Build local public support  
  • Autumn/winter 2023: Lobby and mobilise  
  • 2024: Election campaigning 

We’ll only win our campaign if we can show that we have broad and vocal support from communities up and down the country. Without pressure from the people who vote for them, politicians won’t feel the pressure to act. For more than a year, groups have been building public support for the campaign in their communities, through running petitions, organising engaging community events, craftivism activities, film screenings and much more. This support will be vital in persuading politicians to support our campaign.

Campaigners stand in front of Big Ben holding community quilts for warm homes
Communities calling for warm homes © Friends of the Earth

At key moments, we’ll take co-ordinated action together to show the growing strength of our movement, through days of actions, demonstrations and online activism.  

We’ll make sure our current and future politicians take notice of our growing campaign and hear our demands clearly. Our political campaigning will significantly ramp up in to run up to the 2024 general election, when we’ll run a co-ordinated nationwide election campaign. We’ll make sure all political parties know that to get elected next time, they need to commit to urgently fixing our energy system so it works for people and planet. 

Together, we can win the fight for warm homes that don’t cost the Earth.