The councillor overseeing Warwick District Council's work on climate change insists work to make homes more energy efficient will not come at the expense of building new ones.

Cllr Lowell Williams was addressing concerns from rival political groups over the council's Low Cost Low Carbon Energy programme.

It will attempt to reduce energy consumption and bills in the council's buildings and housing stock as well as privately owned homes, businesses and for other public and voluntary sector organisations.

That plan and the first year of actions, including the delivery of rooftop solar, low energy lighting and other decarbonisation works in selected council assets, the start of a decarbonisation and energy reduction programme for the council's housing stock and the forwarding of proposals to deliver net zero affordable housing on council owned sites, were approved by cabinet – the panel of Green and Labour councillors in charge of major service areas – this week. 

The principle of feasibility studies and pilots for initiatives to help beyond the council's estate was also approved, committing the council to exploring how to retrofit homes at a large scale across all tenures, create income streams and inspire confidence in the community that "retrofit is achievable and valuable". 

Rival group leaders stopped short of outright opposition but concern was expressed over the complexity of the plans, how they would be funded and particularly over whether this is being given too much priority at a time when so many are waiting for council housing. 

Cllr Andrew Day, who was leader of the authority until May 2023, said: "The Conservative group appreciates the challenge of balancing different objectives but the fact of the matter is we have a growing number of our own residents on our waiting list in category one, those who are most in need.

"That figure is going up and has been going up quite significantly over the past 18 months. It is therefore of some concern how you strike that balance given that housing is a primary need.

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"Our view is that rather than retrofitting, new builds, more new houses (should be prioritised), preferably through Milverton Homes (a company formed by the council to provide housing)."

Cllr Williams replied: "This is not an either or between funding housing and funding decarbonisation. 

"The strategy in front of you I think makes it explicitly clear that this is not requiring any additional funds at this point in time, it is not drawing on the HRA (housing revenue account), it is drawing on funds which are already allocated to this work. In no way is it a strategy that is in competition with HRA."

He vowed that the cabinet would "get on with it", adding: "We (the council) perhaps haven't done as much as we would like to have done in the past but we are now addressing that and getting on with action."