Recently, I was staggered to learn that the UK has amongst the least insulated and energy-efficient homes in Western Europe.

In the UK, 25% of a home’s heat is lost through an uninsulated roof. Whilst around 80% of us fill our lofts with storage, we only protect our insulation in 2% of lofts, meaning it only works half as well as it should do. Put simply, when this is done wrong, we lose more energy than we need to (which means more money) and harming the environment in the process.

We can all be guilty of squashing the insulation in our lofts, chucking boxes of Christmas decorations, photo albums and boxes of old clothes into the loft for safe storage. Insulation only works properly, however, if it is not compressed, hence why it needs protecting.

Insulation protection sits above the loft insulation, increasing its long-term effectiveness and ultimately lowering energy bills and carbon emissions. It also means that people can continue to use their lofts for storage and access without the worry of a cold home and high energy bills.

Last week, I witnessed the installation of loft insulation protection in Brecon by Loft Boarding South Wales, a local family-run Green Growth business, committed to transforming draughty homes across Mid and South Wales, one loft at a time.

During my visit, I had the pleasure of meeting the installers who taught me how to construct part of their loft boarding solution. Donning my goggles and red gloves, I saw first-hand the significance of the loft insulation being properly protected and the impact of it being squashed.

Following years of underinvestment from the previous government, the sad truth is that many homes will need their insulation replaced. Unless we encourage simple, cost-effective solutions to prevent heat loss in our homes, we will remain stuck in a cycle of costly installations and replacements.

Loft Boarding South Wales belongs to the National Warm Homes Council, a collection of British SMEs committed to reducing household bills and providing accessible solutions to improve energy efficiency. Key to this will be the Warm Homes Plan, which is a government initiative to help people find ways to save money on energy bills and deliver warmer, cleaner ways to heat homes. But no real details have emerged yet about what this plan will do. The Government needs to do more to help cut homeowners' bills and increase the energy efficiency of homes across the UK, and to do it faster.

A major part of the plan needs to be mandating loft insulation protection for homes every time insulation is fitted, as well as updating the Future Homes Standard to incorporate in-use data, so that new homes don’t need retrofitting as soon as they are built.

An effective Warm Homes Plan must be implemented to address draughty homes, and we should be doing everything we can to encourage the UK’s growing energy efficiency sector. In doing so, we can reduce our energy bills and contribute to a more sustainable and resilient future.