How much money could better insulation save us? 

People across the UK could collectively save as much as £8 billion on their energy bills through insulating homes and other efficiency measures.  We’ve calculated this jaw-dropping figure using information from the Energy Saving Trust, as part of our 25 Big Local Actions in 2025 campaign.

Insulate Our Homes

Throughout this year, we’re sharing useful information based around 25 different themes relating to climate and nature. The first of these themes, Insulate Our Homes, focuses on the significant positive impact that retrofitting the UK’s low quality, energy inefficient housing stock could have. 

Alongside helpful links to organisations like Energyworks, the Centre for Sustainable Energy and SHINE London, we’re spotlighting the example of Warmer Homes Scotland – an inspiring Scotland-wide programme tackling fuel poverty, improving energy efficiency and providing jobs and training opportunities at the same time. 

The UK as a whole needs a new scheme and a big investment in training so we have the workforce in place to upgrade our nation’s homes – a home energy efficiency scheme modelled on Scotland’s programme; but importantly, we should not wait for Westminster. Locally, citizens have the power right now to plug the gaps in our leaky homes and save on energy bills, by navigating the different schemes currently available and by using local area services. 

Our co-founder Ric Casale said: 

“Warmer Homes Scotland is a brilliant example of local action that’s really big. To date this initiative has supported more than 35,000 households in Scotland, helping people to manage their bills, and keep their homes warm.  

“At this time of year, when so many people are struggling to make ends meet, it’s a tragedy that families are wasting their precious pennies on heat which literally leaks straight out of their houses. A genuine mass insulation scheme could save £8 billion a year nationally through better insulated housing; and it’s not just an economic issue. Cold, damp houses are unhealthy houses. Increasing the energy efficiency of the UK’s properties to EPC C would prevent around 650,000 new cases of childhood asthma by 2030*; so there really is an enormous need for ambitious initiatives like Warmer Homes Scotland to be rolled out elsewhere.” 

To support the campaign, we’re releasing a new podcast episode every two weeks this year in a series called Do Something Bigger. Speaking on the latest episode, Insulate Our Homes, Andrea Howe from Cosy Homes in Lancashire also mentioned the health implications of poor housing. 

“We were seeing that a lot of installers that had access to funding were leaving out the most vulnerable residents…some of the very difficult properties to insulate or heat were occupied by very vulnerable people and were getting missed out because (the installers) wanted to maximise profit.  

“As a group of local authorities, we thought that was really unfair, that there needed to be somewhere for those people to come to where we could help them get the work done and provide funding for them. We set up really to make sure that most deprived properties, the most vulnerable residents, those with long-term health conditions etc. had an easy way access funding to make sure their homes were warm and that they remained well in their properties. We all know living in a cold home can impact on people’s health and well-being.” 

Learn more about insulating homes

For more information about insulating homes, and steps you can take to improve the energy efficiency of your home, to listen to the podcast, and to find links to organisations that can help, visit https://carboncopy.eco/takeaction/insulate-our-homes.