The Government’s long awaited Warm Homes Plan, published last week by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, sets out welcome steps to help consumers access more affordable clean energy. However, ECA (Electrical Contractors’ Association) warns that the Plan overlooks a fundamental requirement for success: the skills, competence and on the ground experience of the electrotechnical industry.
Despite placing significant responsibility on businesses and training providers to deliver the UK’s electrification ambitions, the Government has not provided dedicated support to ensure the workforce remains aligned with rapidly advancing technologies and increasingly integrated digital systems. This gap, ECA argues, presents a real risk to the practical delivery of the Warm Homes Plan.
Keith Sanderson, Head of Skills Delivery at ECA, expressed concern that the Plan misses a critical opportunity to address the UK’s shrinking electrical workforce:
“With a shrinking electrical workforce, it is disappointing the Warm Homes Plan does not provide any support or incentives to training providers or businesses offering apprenticeships. As technologies become more complex and digital systems require increasing integration, upskilling will not solve all the needs of the energy transition. Apprenticeships remain industry’s preferred training route. Short upskilling courses can only deliver if they are developed with genuine input from the industry.”
In its current form, the Warm Homes Plan’s most significant omission is the absence of electrotechnical representation on the new Warm Homes Workforce Taskforce. Electrical installers—responsible for the “final mile” of cabling, systems, and technologies—play a pivotal role in ensuring installations are safe, competent, and futureproof. Their exclusion raises concerns across the sector.
Jane Dawson, Head of External Affairs at ECA, emphasised the potential consequences:
“The twice delayed and highly anticipated Warm Homes Plan provides little solace for the electrical contracting industry. Electrical installers, who deliver the ‘final mile’ of electrical cabling, technologies and systems, are notably without representation on the new Warm Homes Workforce Taskforce. This leaves the UK’s energy transition in peril. A Taskforce without an understanding of the competence and safety standards required, risks training a workforce unprepared for the challenges ahead—and that potentially puts lives at risk.”
ECA calls for urgent inclusion of electrotechnical expertise
ECA urges the Government to revise the composition of the Workforce Taskforce to ensure that electrotechnical experts play a central role in shaping training pathways, setting competency standards, and guiding the implementation of the Plan.
ECA also calls for targeted investment in apprenticeship programmes, support for training providers, and structured collaboration with the wider built environment sector to ensure that workforce capability is not an afterthought, but a foundation.
ECA is supporting its Members as skills policy shifts to regional authorities. In the past year, five Electrotechnical Training and Careers Alliances (ETCAs) have been established in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, Cheshire & Warrington, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, and Kent & Medway. The ETCAs brings ECA Members, training providers and regional bodies together to tackle local skills gaps. Two further Alliances, in South Yorkshire and the North East, will launch during National Apprenticeship Week in February 2026, with more to follow.
Last updated 26 January 26
