Zachary Leather

Turning up the heat • Resolution Foundation Decarbonising home heating is one of the knottiest parts of the net zero transition, with big implications on families’ finances and behaviour. This report examines progress so far and discusses what ...

More on our calls for better means testing of heat pump subsidies and leaning more on regulations to drive demand here

www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

This is all a bit opaque but certainly seems like BUS and ECO are at risk. In a world where ECO levy is no more and £13.2bn is all we have for warm homes, stricter means testing is good & keeps tight focus on fuel poor homes

But that only works if there's heat pump regs to keep demand on track

While esteemed colleagues won prestigious awards for great work last, I'm also proud to have won 2.5kg of smarties for best report title of the year, the best return on writing two words I'm ever likely to get

www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

May be other factors but a) SW is bigger than the other regions b) the farms there are smaller so more of them

Bigger states, better captains and stronger safety nets • Resolution Foundation Morning all, Imagine having a team of people who can pretty much draw any chart you can dream up? I know, I’m incredibly lucky. But who knew they were so well read? When I asked the Resolution crew wh...

One of the only books ever to be belatedly endorsed by the Resolution Foundation in our 'reads of the summer' 2025

www.resolutionfoundation.org/comment/bigg...

Frustratingly, the Gov didn't give us a breakdown of emissions by sector. That makes it very hard to see how this Gov is approaching the tough trade offs between faster/ slower decarbonisation across sectors. As delivering net zero gets harder for households, a bit more transparency would be nice!

There's some hints on homes policy we'll be hearing more about soon - in line with its "incentives based" approach, big subsidy schemes are here to stay, savings from regulations are weaker than 2023 and cheaper electricity for heat pumps isn't dead yet (more detail here bsky.app/profile/mash...)

Turning up the heat • Resolution Foundation Decarbonising home heating is one of the knottiest parts of the net zero transition, with big implications on families’ finances and behaviour. This report examines progress so far and discusses what ...

There's some chunky targets behind that - not least a clear sign that ambition on heat pumps hasn't dimmed. This Gov wants two million heat pumps to be installed between 2026 and 2030, an average of 400k a year. Last year we managed a quarter of that. As we've set out before, that's a big challenge

The key thing about the next phase of net zero is that we're moving to decarbonising sectors that households will feel - heating and transport.

This new plan doesn't change that. Over half of policy driven emissions savings in the fifth carbon budget (2028-2032) will be in these sectors.

The Government released it's Carbon Budget Delivery Plan this afternoon, the first chance this Government has had to set out how it wants to reach net zero.

For the first time, it adds up. But the decisions the Government is making on how to make it add up are far more important

Splitting the bill • Resolution Foundation This note looks at the factors behind stubbornly high energy bills and how ministers could act to ease pressure on households. It considers how change can be enacted to work for vulnerable families an...

💡💡💡 New @resfoundation.bsky.social note out today on cutting energy bills – and how paying for some costs on bills differently will see the poorest households more than £100 per year better off 💡💡💡 1/

www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Salary sacrifice is a poor way of subsidising.

More cash for those with higher tax rates (meaning more income) is the opposite of what we should be doing - getting solar panels onto the rooves of fuel poor families. Poorer families have less salary to sacrifice, meaning less or no subsidy for them

This is good from Simon Wren-Lewis on why the country's fiscal woes are not caused by OBR forecasts, the bond market or (most improbably) the frequency of fiscal forecasts.

Most of this change in energy bills being driven by an increase in standing charges, which are up for both gas and for electricity into Q4

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Great to see Guardian cover our research today - it's flats and smaller houses that are most at risk of overheating, so should be no surprise that vulnerable families will be more at risk.

Important to think about cooling homes as well as warming them!

New research from us today on how Gov should approach some tricky trade offs in its Warm Homes Plan

With CCC estimating that EVs will soon be cheaper than conventional vehicles, and demand already on track for our regulations, it's hard to see why we need the extra subsidies announced recently - esp. as they'll be regressive, with most new cars bought by richer households

New data further proof that the ZEV mandate is doing its job - SMMT reckons we'll hit 23.8% BEV this year - 4 points up on 2024 and more than enough to meet the ZEV mandate's 28% target with all its flexibilities.

Flex appeal • Resolution Foundation Britain needs to transform its electricity system for net zero, shifting from fixed prices to time-and-location varying tariffs. This could save £18bn annually by 2040, but it requires careful design ...

We think Government can play a role to ensure the savings from consumer flex are big and shared fairly - such as by making those with lots to contribute do their bit.

Reforming the price cap (which was never meant for a flexible world) is one option

www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Consumer-led flexibility: consumer engagement We're seeking views on proposals on the best approach to engage consumers on consumer-led flexibility.

One of the key decisions here is how much of a role there is for Government in promoting flex, so happy that DESNZ are consulting on that.

www.gov.uk/government/c...

But not much detail yet on what it means for consumers, and how the savings will be shared. Reform in the retail market is critical here, so good to see that DESNZ/ Ofgem are working out the options (more from them in March 2026)

Clean flexibility roadmap A roadmap setting out the government’s vision for a clean, flexible, consumer-focused electricity system.

Good to see the flexibility roadmap out today. Flex is key to a cheaper energy system, so great that Gov is committed to this. Especially big savings coming for those with big techs like EVs and heat pumps.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Shame to see rising block tariffs suggested. A bad idea for poorer families that use lots of energy, but also not great for incentivising people to consume more electricity in electric cars or heat pumps

A significant majority of electricity is used by industry. The actual split depends on a whole host of factors that are challenging to predict, but a cheaper electricity system certainly won't just benefit households

Flex appeal • Resolution Foundation Britain needs to transform its electricity system for net zero, shifting from fixed prices to time-and-location varying tariffs. This could save £18bn annually by 2040, but it requires careful design ...

Read more in our new report www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

But this will inevitably affect some vulnerable households so must be balanced with consumer protection - a time of use price cap, seeing fixed prices in peak and off-peak hours, is one way to manage the risks posed by fluctuating prices.

One way of doing this is setting a usage limit on the price cap - exposing those with power hungry technologies (and thus high electricity use) to price signals.

We should start by making sure that households with the most 'flexibility' to contribute do so - that's those with big electricity intensive technologies like electric vehicles.

That would be a big shift for households, who largely pay the same price for electricity at all times of the day