In response to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s call for evidence on the Warm Homes Fund, Energy Systems Catapult has emphasised that:

• The Warm Homes Fund should focus on supporting innovation across finance, business models, consumer experience, planning, and regulation. It should be used to foster innovative delivery systems and service design, not to just directly fund the deployment of existing technologies.
• Well-designed finance will fail without addressing the key challenges that the UK has in decarbonising buildings. Innovation is needed in quality assurance and performance monitoring, clear consumer protection and redress mechanisms, and integrated support services.
• There is a need to move beyond theoretical metrics and towards measured performance data and outcome-based approaches, to enable performance-based finance, build investor and consumer confidence, and improve targeting of support. This should include service designs such as blended finance through a Warm Home Prescription delivery model, and Energy as a Service models.