How long can one wait with bated breath before oxygen begins to run short. This is the experiment that the government and the retrofit industry appear to have been engaged in over the past year. 

The Warm Homes Plan, Ed Miliband’s flagship energy efficiency policy, has been just around the corner for a while now. Initially expected in summer 2025, it was first pushed back to autumn, then simply “before christmas”. That ultimately slipped into “in the new year” and the last Building heard from the department was that it was coming soon - but probably not this week.

“I’ve been expecting it next week for about the last four months,” laughs David Weatherall, head of policy at the Building Research Establishment. Cracking wise about the unreliability of promised government policy announcements is a pastime as old as skimming stones, and the retrofit sector may have been comfortable with relieving its frustration this way, were it not for an unpleasant surprise in November’s budget.