Consumer Advice and Information programme: evaluation

This report evaluates the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Consumer Advice and Information ( CAI ) programme, specifically the Home Retrofit Advice and Information Line (phoneline) and Local Energy Advice Demonstrator ( LEAD ) programme. It focuses on how well these services supported households seeking to improve the energy efficiency of their property, particularly for hard-to-reach households and households living in hard-to-decarbonise homes. It covers the national phoneline and 36 local demonstrator projects, assessing delivery, user experience, outcomes, and value for money. Overall, the programme showed that personalised, local advice can help people take action, but more support and better coordination are needed to maximise impact. Evaluation of the Consumer Advice and Information programme Ref: RAF048/2324 PDF , 1.08 MB , 129 pages Evaluation of the Consumer Advice and Information programme: technical annex PDF , 1.19 MB , 76 pages This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Request an accessible format. If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email alt.formats@energysecurity.gov.uk . Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use. Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (2026) RAF048/2324: Evaluation of the consumer advice and information programme Local Energy Advice Demonstrator programme and Home Retrofit Advice and Information Line Final report © Crown copyright 2026 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. 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Evaluation of DESNZ Consumer Advice and Information programme 3 Contents Executive Summary _________________________________________________________ 6 Introduction ______________________________________________________________ 6 Home Retrofit Advice and Information Line ______________________________________ 7 Local Energy Advice Demonstrators (LEAD) _____________________________________ 9 Glossary _________________________________________________________________ 14 1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________ 16 1.1 Background ________________________________________________________ 16 1.2 Evaluation aims _____________________________________________________ 18 1.3 Evaluation approach and timings _______________________________________ 18 1.4 Report structure _____________________________________________________ 19 2 Home Retrofit Advice & Information Line __________________________________ 20 2.1 Introduction ________________________________________________________ 20 2.2 Background ________________________________________________________ 20 2.2.1 Service aims and rationale for intervention ____________________________ 20 2.3 Evaluation methodology ______________________________________________ 21 2.3.1 Strength and limitations of evidence _________________________________ 22 2.4 Evaluation Findings __________________________________________________ 24 2.4.1 What aspects of the service are working well/less well? __________________ 24 2.4.2 What has been achieved? _________________________________________ 27 2.4.3 What are customers’ experiences of using the phoneline service? __________ 32 2.4.4 What are the impacts of the service? _________________________________ 35 2.4.5 How effective is the phoneline? _____________________________________ 36 2.4.6 Does the phoneline represent value for money? ________________________ 42 2.5 Phoneline conclusions ________________________________________________ 47 2.5.1 Has the phoneline met its aims and objectives? ________________________ 47 2.5.2 Customer experiences of the phoneline and retrofit journey _______________ 48 2.5.3 Promotion of the phoneline ________________________________________ 48 2.5.4 Does the phoneline represent value for money to the public purse? _________ 49 3 Local Energy Advice Demonstrator (LEAD) programme ______________________ 50 3.1 Introduction ________________________________________________________ 50 3.1.1 Service aims and rationale for intervention ____________________________ 50 3.1.2 Key Performance Indicators ________________________________________ 51 3.2 Methodology _______________________________________________________ 52 3.2.1 Strength and limitations of evidence _________________________________ 56 3.3 What has been achieved? _____________________________________________ 58 3.3.1 To what extent did projects meet their KPIs? ___________________________ 58 3.3.2 Were hard-to-reach cus

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