About

Upgrading our homes would mean they stay warmer and don’t rely on dirty fuels. That way everyone can come home to a warm place which doesn’t pollute the planet.

Our housing is draughty, wastes energy and relies on dirty fuels that pollute our communities and our atmosphere. Living in a cold, damp home can affect our health, but many of us aren’t able to to change this on our own. The upfront costs of things like heat pumps and insulation are too high.

At the same time, we need new tradespeople with the right skills to upgrade our homes – and that means new secure, well-paid, long-term jobs making our homes and local areas healthier and happier places to live in.

Only the government can make this happen at the speed and scale we need. A long-term investment programme which means our homes don’t leak heat and aren’t powered by dirty fossil fuels would create thousands of jobs while preventing thousands of premature deaths due to cold and damp homes.

The Great Homes Upgrade campaign will bring together a coalition of diverse organisations from civil society (trade unions, faith organisations, climate justice groups), the state (MPs, metro mayors, council leaders) and businesses (retrofitting organisations, green technology firms) that can campaign and organise around a national retrofit programme together.

We are asking councillors, members of parliament, activists and – most importantly – communities to join our campaign.

There is no route to decarbonising the economy without retrofitting millions of buildings across the UK.

We can upgrade Britain’s housing so that everyone can come home to a warm, comfortable place, secure in the knowledge that our homes aren’t damaging our health and that our houses are ready to tackle the climate crisis.

• Frequently asked questions
• Retrofit: 5 things you need to know