The United Kingdom has made significant commitments to both low carbon heating and energy efficiency. However little progress has been made and the country has fallen far behind the rest Europe.

A key challenge is how the UK will develop the workforce required to deliver retrofitting targets. This research from ODI and Green Alliance explores labour shortages and skills gaps in depth and asks a new question -  should the UK seek to use immigration policy to support a rapid scale-up of retrofitting in the context of its decarbonisation targets?

Key findings:

• Workforce forecasts to meet low-carbon heating and energy efficiency targets are considerable.
• New entrants to the industry will be critical but progress attracting and preparing the domestic workforce is slow.
• There is strong rationale to use immigration policy to support the development of the domestic workforce.