The government’s new Warm Homes Plan has been described as the biggest home upgrade programme in British history. At a time when millions of people are living in cold, damp and unsafe homes, that ambition is welcome. But whether the plan succeeds will depend not only on how many homes are upgraded, but whose homes are upgraded.
The uncomfortable truth is that large national schemes have a mixed track record when it comes to fairness. Without deliberate attention to inequality, they tend to benefit those who are already better placed to navigate complex systems, while communities facing the greatest housing-related health risks are left behind. The Warm Homes Plan risks repeating this pattern unless equity is built into its design from the outset.
Poor housing is not distributed evenly. Evidence consistently shows that people from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic backgrounds are more likely to live in overcrowded, damp and energy-inefficient homes. These conditions directly undermine health, increasing the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular disease and worsening mental health and wellbeing. This is why housing is such a powerful driver of health inequality.
These patterns are not accidental. They reflect decades of racial discrimination in housing allocation, labour markets and access to wealth. As a result, housing deprivation cuts across tenures. While the private rented sector has the highest proportion of non-decent homes, many older people from minoritised ethnic backgrounds live in poor-quality housing even when they own their homes outright. Lower lifetime earnings, limited housing wealth and concentration in older housing stock mean owner-occupation for Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic people does not necessarily equate to warm or safe homes.
This matters because too many housing and energy efficiency schemes are built around assumptions that do not hold for everyone. Schemes that rely heavily on self-referral or assume that owner-occupiers can bridge funding gaps risk systematically excluding households with high need but low capacity to engage. The result is predictable: uptake looks healthy overall, but inequalities persist beneath the surface.
Access is only part of the problem. We also lack visibility. At present, there is no consistent national picture of who is accessing housing and energy schemes by ethnicity. Without this information, it is impossible to know whether the Warm Homes Plan is reaching those most exposed to cold and unsafe housing, or whether it is unintentionally widening gaps.
If the Warm Homes Plan is serious about tackling fuel poverty and improving health, it must also be serious about racial inequality. That means recognising that housing disadvantage is shaped by structural racism, not just income or tenure. It means designing access routes that work for people who are digitally excluded or distrustful of statutory systems because of past experience. And it means embedding proportionate, transparent data collection from the start so inequalities can be identified and addressed, rather than ignored. Warm homes can reduce inequality, but only if race equity is treated as a core outcome, not a by-product.
Jabeer Butt OBE
For media enquiries please contact Lauren Golding at comms@racefound.org.uk
