The UK Warm Homes Plan: Window Blinds Named Priority Home Upgrade
The Warm Homes Plan is the government’s new £15 billion programme to improve homes across the UK, with funding and support aimed at making properties cheaper to run and more comfortable to live in. Most of the attention has understandably gone to major upgrades such as insulation and low-carbon heating but there’s also a much smaller measure tucked into the plan that caught our attention: window blinds.
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Internal blinds and external shutters are specifically named as ‘low-cost, low-regret’ measures that can help to protect homes from overheating. It’s an interesting recognition of something that we’ve known for a long while at AKOB, but can still easily be overlooked when we talk about home energy efficiency. What you put at your windows can make a noticeable difference to how much heat enters a room during hot weather.
So, let’s take a closer look at why blinds have been included in the Warm Homes Plan and what that means when you’re choosing window coverings for your own home.
What Is the UK Warm Homes Plan?
Published in January 2026, the Warm Homes Plan sets out how the government intends to improve the energy performance of homes across the UK. There is £15 billion of public investment behind the programme, with a target of upgrading up to five million homes by 2030.
A large part of that investment is aimed at improving how efficiently homes use and retain energy, which is why measures such as better insulation and low-carbon heating feature so prominently. However, the plan also acknowledges a problem at the other end of the thermometer: UK homes need to be better prepared for periods of extreme heat.
This means looking at ways to stop a home becoming excessively hot in the first place, rather than relying on powered cooling once it has already overheated. This is where passive cooling measures such as blinds and shutters enter the Warm Homes Plan.
Why Has the Warm Homes Plan Included Window Blinds?
If you’ve ever had a south-facing room become unbearably hot on a sunny afternoon (even in autumn), you’ll already have experienced the problem that the Warm Homes Plan is trying to address. Once direct sunlight starts coming through the glass, the room can heat up surprisingly quickly.
The plan encourages passive cooling, which means reducing heat before it enters the home rather than relying on powered cooling afterwards. Unfortunately, their inclusion doesn’t mean that homeowners can automatically claim funding for new blinds. It does, however, recognise that the right window coverings can play a practical role in preventing UK homes from overheating.
How Can Blinds Keep Your Home Cooler?
When direct sunlight comes through your windows, it heats the floor and furniture inside the room. Those surfaces then release that heat back into the space slowly, which is why a sunny room can stay uncomfortably warm even after the sun has moved away from the window.
Blinds give you a way to limit that solar heat gain but timing also makes a difference. On a hot day, closing blinds before strong sunlight reaches the window is more effective than waiting until the room has already heated up.
The type of blind matters too, as some fabrics provide much better solar protection than others and the fit at the window can also affect how well the blind performs. This is why at AKOB we look at the window itself and how much direct sun the room receives when recommending blinds for keeping a home cooler.
Blinds Can Help with Year-Round Comfort
The Warm Homes Plan focuses on blinds as a way to tackle overheating but their thermal benefits aren’t limited to summer. When temperatures drop, a well-fitted blind creates another layer between the room and the cold glass, which can help to reduce heat loss through the window too.
The type of blind that you choose is particularly important. Thermal fabrics are designed with insulation in mind, whilst honeycomb blinds trap air within their cellular structure to create an additional barrier at the window. This means that when used properly, the same window covering that provides shade on a hot summer afternoon can also help to keep more warmth in the room during winter.
Which Blinds Are Best for Keeping Your Home Comfortable?
There isn’t one energy-efficient blind that the government recommends, and at AKOB we like to start with the particular problem you’re facing. For example, if we’re trying to stop a sunny living room from overheating, we’ll be looking at different things than we would for a bedroom that feels noticeably colder in winter.
Thermal and Honeycomb Blinds For insulation, thermal and honeycomb blinds (such as Blind ScreenTM) are two of the options that we recommend most often. Thermal fabrics provide a more substantial barrier at the window, whereas Blind ScreenTM uses pockets of trapped air within their cellular structure to reduce heat transfer.
Blind ScreenTM blinds are also great if you need something that works across the seasons. They can provide shade from direct sunlight in summer and add insulation at the window when temperatures drop.
Roller and Blackout Blinds With roller blinds, pay close attention to the fabric. A lightweight fabric can provide shade, but choosing a thermal or blackout option will give you much better protection at a window that receives a lot of direct sun. Don’t be fooled into thinking ‘thermal’ means hot. A good thermal blind helps to retain heat in the winter but will keep the heat out during those unbearable heatwaves.
Blackout blinds also make good sense in bedrooms, where reducing summer heat goes hand in hand with keeping early morning light out.
Perfect Fit Blinds Perfect Fit blinds are a useful option for uPVC windows and glazed doors because the blind sits neatly within the frame rather than hanging in front of it. This gives you closer control over the light coming through the glass without adding a bulky fitting around the window.
Shutters Shutters are specifically mentioned alongside internal blinds in the Warm Homes Plan. Their adjustable louvres are helpful when you don’t want an all-or-nothing choice between direct sunlight and a dark room. You can angle the louvres to reduce strong sunlight whilst still allowing daylight into the room.
Finding the Right Blinds for a More Comfortable Home
If you want blinds that do more than simply look beautiful at the window, our free home survey is a good place to start. We can see which rooms get the most direct sunlight and talk about where you’re having problems with heat before recommending options that will work best for your home.
We’ll bring samples with us so that you can compare different fabrics and finishes in the room itself, rather than trying to make a decision from a picture online. Your blinds or shutters will then be made to measure for your windows and professionally fitted to keep your family comfy all-year-round.
Get in touch with All Kinds of Blinds to arrange your free home survey and find the perfect window coverings for your home today.
WE SUPPLY BLINDS, SHUTTERS AND CURTAINS TO ESSEX, LONDON, HERTFORDSHIRE, SURREY, KENT, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE AND CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
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