Powering your Home Improvement Journey: How Dobson-Grey supports Homeowners with the new Warm Homes Plan
The UK’s Warm Homes Plan offers homeowners a major opportunity to create safer, warmer, and more affordable residences. But with new government grants come complex regulations, especially concerning planning permissions for listed buildings and ensuring safe, high-quality installation. Our latest blog breaks down these crucial legal and structural hurdles, showing how expert guidance in surveying, town planning, and health and safety can ensure your home retrofit is both compliant and financially sound.
The UK’s commitment to upgrading housing stock through initiatives like the Warm Homes Plan—a ÂŁ15 billion initiative aimed at upgrading 5 million homes by 2030—presents a fantastic opportunity for homeowners to create safer, warmer, and more affordable homes. However, navigating the rules, regulations, and potential pitfalls can be a complex journey.
RICS President Nick Maclean, said: “The Warm Homes Plan is a critical step towards improving the UK’s housing stock. Enabling retrofit through strong investment will ensure that surveying professionals can support the delivery of desperately needed safer, warmer and more affordable homes”.
Published this month (January 2026) the UK government’s Warm Homes Plan aims to enhance millions of residences by 2030, yet homeowners often face significant legal and structural hurdles during the retrofit process. Professional consultancies like Dobson-Grey offer essential guidance to help residents navigate complex town planning regulations, particularly for listed buildings or those within conservation areas. Beyond legal compliance, expert oversight is vital for maintaining health and safety standards, ensuring that new insulation or solar installations do not compromise the building’s integrity. Specialist property valuations also help owners understand how energy efficiency upgrades, such as improved EPC ratings, specifically influence the market value of their assets.
Dobson-Grey highlights the importance of professional surveying, planning and safety to ensure that green investments result in safe, compliant, and financially sound home improvements in the following blog.
As a multi-disciplinary consultancy specialising in chartered surveying, town planning, health and safety, and valuation, Dobson-Grey provides the expert guidance necessary to ensure your home improvement project is a success.
1. Avoiding Planning Refusals on Listed Homes and Conservation Areas
While many rooftop solar panel and insulation installations are considered “permitted development” and do not require planning permission, the rules change significantly for certain properties, particularly those with historical importance.
- The Challenge: If your home is a Listed Building, you require Listed Building Consent. Homes in Conservation Areas may also face restrictions, especially if panels are on a wall facing a highway. Navigating these rules incorrectly can lead to costly refusal.
- The Dobson-Grey Solution (Town Planning): Our Town & Country Planning experts are critical in managing the legal and regulatory landscape. We assess your property before work begins, providing clear advice on whether you need permission. For complex cases, we can help obtain a Lawful Development Certificate to legally confirm that your installation does not require permission, safeguarding you from future issues.
2. Mitigating Health & Safety (H&S) Pitfalls
As the Public Accounts Committee has raised safety warnings regarding the quality and safety of past insulation installations, proper oversight is essential for any modern retrofit project.
- The Challenge: Substandard installation or a failure to comply with building safety standards poses risks to the building structure and occupants. A simple improvement can quickly turn into a costly and dangerous pitfall.
- The Dobson-Grey Solution (Health & Safety): Our Health & Safety consultancy ensures your installation adheres to the highest standards. We provide the expert oversight needed to review installation plans. This mitigates risks and provides peace of mind that your investment is sound and compliant. For larger schemes we provide CDM consultancy support.
3. Considering House Value Benefits and Negatives
A primary goal of the Warm Homes Plan is to make homes more affordable to run, tied into the incremental stepping up of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings. These improvements (or absence of improvement) in energy performance can impact a property’s market value.
- The Challenge: While EPC improvements and energy efficiency generally increase a home’s value, poor-quality or non-compliant installations can have a negative impact. You need an accurate, impartial assessment of the investment’s return.
- The Dobson-Grey Solution (Valuation and Home Surveys): Our RICS-backed Valuation and Property Survey experts can accurately assess the current and future value of your home. We provide:
- Accurate Valuation: By factoring in the new EPC rating and the quality of the improvements, we ensure you understand the true financial benefits of your retrofit.
- Impartial Advice: We advise on the most effective EPC improvements and legislation compliance, ensuring your investment is one that surveying professionals—like RICS members—would fully support as a step towards a safer, warmer, and more affordable home.
- Does cash outlay for new panels equal an improvement in capital value?
- Support your exploration of grants toward solar panels through the Warm Homes Plan.
Further information may be found here on the Government’s Warm Homes Plan.