ENVIRONMENTAL and anti-fuel poverty campaigners called for more action and funding to end the “scandal” of people living in cold, damp homes following the government’s Warm Homes funding announcement.

Under the new scheme, homeowners will be able to access low and zero-interest loans to install solar panels, heat pumps and batteries.

New measures are also meant to benefit low-income households, who will receive free upgrades to their home insulation.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband defended the plan, saying it “will help families living in social housing and low income owner occupiers to have warmer homes and lower bills.”

He set a goal for “at least 70 per cent of heat pumps installed in the UK being made in the UK, backed by a trebling of public investment in heat pump manufacturing, with £90 million set aside today.”

End Fuel Poverty Coalition’s co-ordinator Simon Francis said the Warm Homes Plan backed by £5 billion of public investment is “a rescue mission for the coldest, dampest homes in Britain.”

He said: ”If delivery matches ambition then this could be the biggest breakthrough in tackling fuel poverty in a generation, but now the hard work begins.

“There will also need to be reforms which go beyond this plan, such as bringing down the cost of electricity and providing financial support with energy costs while households wait for improvements to be installed.”

Uplift executive director Tessa Khan said the plan is ”desperately needed, with world events once again highlighting the UK’s vulnerability from our over-reliance on gas for heating.

“An ambitious warm homes plan, properly implemented, will reduce our exposure to price shocks and mean we are not at the mercy of bad actors like Putin or the whims of Trump.”

Cllr Arooj Shah, who is the chair of the Local Governments Neighbourhoods Committee, warned it is “crucial” the plan be delivered “properly and to high standards.”

But GMB union has criticised the government’s warm home plan, branding it “exactly the kind of muddle-headed top down bureaucracy that gives the green transition a bad name.”

GMB national secretary Andy Prendergast said: “The idea that we will deploy more than one and a half million heat pumps a year within a decade is a fantasy; we don’t have the supply chains, skills or public appetite.

“This is money that could have been spent decarbonising a popular, successful gas network.”