Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister for Communities to detail (i) any steps his Department is taking to incentivise people to make their homes more energy efficient; and (ii) whether he will set out any support available to help people cover these costs.
Minister for Communities: (i) & (ii) My Department currently supports the Affordable Warmth Scheme, which provides partial funding for energy efficiency measures such as loft, cavity wall, and solid wall insulation in the homes of low-income homeowners.
My new Warm Healthy Homes Strategy includes an objective to increase investment in domestic energy efficiency schemes for low-income, vulnerable households. This reflects the Strategy’s focus on improving the energy efficiency of homes and reducing household energy costs.
The Strategy also includes a strategic action to assess and implement the fairest, most effective way to fund future investment in energy efficiency for low-income households. This will be taken forward through the Strategy’s action planning process, which will help set out how this work is developed and taken forward as part of wider delivery.
A key action within the strategy is the Warm Healthy Homes Fund, a new energyefficiency scheme to deliver warmer homes, better health outcomes and energy affordability for lowincome households. I launched a 12-week public consultation on 27 May 2026, closing on the 19 August 2026. This will replace the current Affordable Warmth Scheme and the Fund is anticipated to launch in April 2027.
The consultation documents and details on how to respond are available at: www.communities-ni.gov.uk/consultations/consultation-warm-healthy-homes-fund
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