Blog: From home upgrades to better outcomes: tackling fuel poverty through reforming consumer protections

At its heart, consumer protection reform in the retrofit space should be about delivering better outcomes for people, ensuring home upgrades lead to warmer, safer and more affordable homes. For households struggling with fuel poverty, strong consumer protections can provide the reassurance needed to participate in retrofit programmes while helping to ensure that upgrades deliver meaningful reductions in fuel poverty through warmer homes, lower bills and improved health.  

Reforming consumer protections is critical to achieving the government’s fuel poverty objectives, particularly given the long history of retrofit failures that have disproportionately affected vulnerable households.  

Our response to the government’s recent consultation on consumer protections was built around six key asks, all aimed at ensuring consumer protection reform delivers better outcomes for households experiencing fuel poverty. 

The government should ensure that the consumer protection system does not pursue simplicity that comes at the expense of vulnerable households, who need tailored, targeted support.  

Simplifying the consumer protection system should not come at the expense of the households that need more complex support to be able to engage. Many people experiencing fuel poverty face a range of interconnected challenges that can make it difficult to engage with home upgrade programmes. A reformed system must therefore go beyond a one-size-fits-all approach, offering tailored support, accessible advice through multiple channels, strong referral networks and ongoing assistance throughout the retrofit journey. Consumer protection reform must recognise that a simpler system does not automatically mean a simpler experience for vulnerable households, who may still be exposed to complexity. Recognition of complex needs and tailored support will help ensure vulnerable households can access and benefit from home upgrades with confidence.  

The government should embed trusted local advisers and community-based advocates within the consumer protection framework to support households throughout the retrofit journey.  

A strong consumer protection framework should recognise the vital role of trusted intermediaries and independent advocates. For many households, navigating the retrofit market can be daunting, particularly given the significant knowledge gap that often exists between consumers and installers. Independent advocates can help bridge that gap by providing clear, impartial support, helping people understand their rights, navigate complex processes and access the protections available to them. 

Local organisations are especially important in this regard. Retrofit hubs, community groups and other trusted community partners are often deeply embedded within the communities they serve and have established relationships that can help build confidence and trust. This local presence makes them well placed to engage households that may be hesitant to deal with formal institutions or unfamiliar providers. By offering accessible, trusted guidance, these organisations can help ensure more households are able to participate in retrofit programmes with confidence and achieve better outcomes as a result. 

The Warm Homes Agency should blend a national framework for advice with local delivery, ensuring consistent oversight and messaging while drawing on local expertise for deeper support.  

The government has envisioned the Warm Homes Agency as being a dedicated public body that helps households access trusted advice, funding and high-quality upgrades. It also sees the Warm Homes Agency as supporting its efforts to strengthen oversight of consumer protection through a new integrated consumer protection service. 

The Warm Homes Agency should blend a national framework for advice with local delivery. Delivering consumer protection support effectively means recognising the vital role of trusted local organisations. These organisations understand the communities they serve and have valuable insight into local needs and challenges, and they are trusted to act as advocates. While local delivery is vital, a national framework ensures consistency and avoids fragmented information, mixed messaging and inconsistent outcomes. See more on our Warm Homes Agency asks here.  

The consumer protection system should measure success with outcomes for consumers, not just outcomes in the property. 

A reformed consumer protection system must keep people at its centre. While installation targets and property improvements are important, success should also be judged by the difference home upgrades make to a resident’s life. The focus should be on ensuring that measures deliver real benefits, such as lower energy bills, improved health and a meaningful reduction in fuel poverty. 

For households experiencing fuel poverty, a successful home upgrade is about more than achieving a better EPC rating. It is about living in a warmer home, being able to afford energy costs and experiencing improved wellbeing. That is why the system should prioritise consumer outcomes over delivery metrics and use wellbeing measures alongside EPCs to assess whether upgrades are genuinely improving people’s lives and reducing the impacts of fuel poverty. 

The government should establish a clear, centralised, redress system, underpinned by robust and effective first-line guarantee protections backed by a solidarity fund as a second line of defence where installers can no longer remediate defective work. 

When things go wrong, consumers should not be left to navigate a complex complaints process on their own. A reformed consumer protection system should take a proactive approach to identifying and resolving issues, particularly for vulnerable households who may be less able to raise concerns themselves. Redress must be easy to access, responsive and focused on addressing problems before they escalate into serious harm. Above all, consumers should have a clear understanding of who is responsible when issues arise and where they can go for support. 

The system must also protect households when installation firms are no longer able to put things right. If an installer has ceased trading, consumers should not be left to bear the cost and consequences of poor-quality work through no fault of their own. Establishing a solidarity fund could provide an important safety net, ensuring households can access remediation and compensation when other avenues are unavailable. This would help protect residents from the financial hardship and poor living conditions they are experiencing through no fault of their own.  

The government should create a single end-to-end consumer protection system with continuous quality assurance, clear accountability and strong enforcement levers throughout the retrofit process. 

A single end-to-end consumer protection system can help build confidence by reducing fragmentation and establishing clear lines of accountability. Achieving this requires a blended model that combines strong national oversight, consistent standards and clear messaging with effective local delivery and support structures. Robust training, quality assurance and oversight arrangements are also essential to ensure consistently high installation standards across the sector and to prevent variations in consumer experience. Consistency in both protections and installation quality is particularly important to avoid the emergence of a two-tier market, where outcomes depend on the funding route through which measures are delivered. 

In conclusion: putting people first 

As the government reforms the consumer protection landscape, it has an opportunity to create a system that not only rebuilds trust in retrofit but also ensures that home upgrades meaningfully reduce the impact of fuel poverty for fuel poor households. Combining tailored support, trusted local delivery, meaningful accountability and maintaining a clear focus on consumer outcomes is crucial to this endeavour and ensures the system is designed around the needs of the most vulnerable.