Official Statistics

DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker: Headline findings, Spring 2026, UK

Published 2 July 2026

The DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker (PAT) is a nationally representative annual survey of adults (aged 16+) in the UK that tracks public awareness, attitudes and behaviours relating to the policies of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), such as energy and climate change.

This report provides a summary of the headline findings from the Spring 2026 wave of the Tracker, which ran from 16 March to 21 April 2026.

The Spring 2026 wave is the sixteenth wave in a series of surveys which began in Autumn 2021. Between Autumn 2021 and Summer 2023, surveys were conducted every quarter, although there was no data collection in Autumn 2023. From Spring 2024, the survey moved to a triannual design with waves conducted every Spring, Summer and Winter.

Two summary self-reported measures are used in this report:

• ‘Awareness’ encompasses all respondents who said they had heard of a particular concept or technology, including those who said they know: ‘hardly anything but I’ve heard of this’, ‘a little’, ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a lot’.
• ‘Knowledge’ encompasses those who said that they know ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a lot’ about a topic.

Headline findings for Spring 2026

Net Zero and climate change

• Almost 8 in 10 said they were concerned about climate change (78%), with levels remaining stable since Winter 2025. However, over the longer term, there has been a decline in concern from 85% at the start of the time series in Autumn 2021.
• Overall awareness of the 2050 Net Zero target also remained stable (89% in Spring 2026 compared with 90% in Winter 2025).

Renewable energy

• 81% of people supported using renewable energy like wind, solar, and biomass for electricity, fuel and heat, up from 78% in Winter 2025. Overall support has declined from 87% at the start of the time series in Autumn 2021, with minor fluctuations over time.
• Support is high across specific types of renewables, ranging from around eight in ten for solar (84%), wave and tidal (80%) and offshore wind energy (78%), to around seven in ten for onshore wind (73%) and biomass (71%).
• While overall support for specific types of renewables is high, people are less positive about the construction of these technologies in their local area^{[footnote 1]}. When asked about how happy or unhappy they would be to have a wind or solar farm constructed in their local area:
  • 37% said they would be happy about a wind farm being constructed, with 16% saying they would be unhappy.
  • A higher proportion, 46% said they would be happy about a solar farm, with 15% saying they would be unhappy.
  • Around three in ten said they wouldn’t mind either way (31% for wind and 28% for solar).
• The majority (70%) of respondents agreed that renewable energy industries and developments provide economic benefits to the UK; this has remained stable compared to Spring 2025 but is lower than at the Spring 2022 baseline (74%).

Energy infrastructure and energy security

• Awareness of different energy sources and technologies remained stable compared to Spring 2025: 79% were aware of hydrogen, 65% fusion energy and 39% small modular reactors. Knowledge of these sources/technologies (knowing a lot or a fair amount) ranged from 11% to 19%.
• When asked about the construction of a nuclear power station in their local area, around a quarter said they would support this (24%), with a larger proportion saying they would oppose (35%, decreasing from 41% since Spring 2024). A substantial proportion said they would neither support nor oppose (23%). Out of those that said they would oppose (35%), the most commonly selected reasons were fear over safety and security (77%) and the disposal of radioactive nuclear waste (67%).
• Scientists remained the source most widely trusted to provide accurate information about new and emerging energy sources (82%). Only 17% trusted social media to provide accurate information on new energy sources.

Heat and energy use in the home

• Levels of awareness of air and ground source heat pumps remain high and are in line with levels reported in Winter 2025 (78% for air source and 73% for ground source).
• 26% of owner-occupiers said they were likely to install or already had an air source heat pump, up from 22% in Winter 2025. A lower proportion said they were likely to install or already had a ground source heat pump (17%); this also increased from Winter 2025 (12%). Over the long term, both figures remain above levels seen in Winter 2021.
• While there was an increase in the likelihood of installing both types of heat pumps, there was also an increase in owner-occupiers saying they would be unlikely to install air source heat pumps (up to 46% from 41% in Winter 2025) and ground source heat pumps (up to 51% from 48% in Winter 2025).
• Two-thirds of owner-occupiers (67%, up from 63% in Spring 2025) stated that they either already had solar panels (10%) or were probably or definitely likely to install them (57%). Conversely, the proportion who reported being unlikely to install solar panels decreased from 27% in Spring 2025 to 24% in the current wave.
• The two main reasons cited by owner-occupiers who said they were likely to install solar panels were to cut electricity bills (83%) and to provide a renewable source of electricity (72%). Among owner-occupiers who said they were unlikely to install solar panels, the two main barriers were being expensive to install (55%) and the payback period being too long (53%).

Energy bills and tariffs

• 55% said they were worried (very or fairly worried) about the cost of their energy bills in the last three months, up from 47% in Summer 2025^{[footnote 2]}. Over the longer term, overall worry about the cost of energy bills has declined from 64% in Spring 2022.
• When asked what impact the UK’s move to renewable energy sources might have on energy bills, people were more optimistic about bills going down in the long term (10 or more years) compared to the short term (1-2 years):
  • In the short term, 49% of people expected an increase in energy bills (compared with 57% in Spring 2025). 13% expected bills to go down (compared with 11% in Spring 2025).
  • Over the long term, people were more likely to expect bills to go down (47%, compared with 41% in Spring 2025). 27% expected bills to go up (this has fallen from 33% in Spring 2025).
• 51% said they were likely to use a flexible energy reward scheme (demand flexibility service), up from 47% in Spring 2025. 6% reported already using such a scheme, remaining stable from 7% in Spring 2025.

Notes

The survey is run by Verian on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The PAT is a household self-completion survey that uses a ‘push to web’ methodology. Respondents can choose to complete the survey online or use a paper questionnaire.

All resident adults aged 16 or over at each sampled address were invited to take part in the survey. In total, 3,389 individuals completed the survey: 2,785 online (82%) and 604 on paper (18%).

Weighting was used to compensate for differences in both sampling probability and response probability. The DESNZ PAT weighting matrix includes nine variables (sex, age group, highest educational qualification, working status, ethnic group, internet use, region, housing tenure, and household size).

In this publication, differences between groups are only reported where they are statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval level.

For further information about the technical details of the survey please refer to the Technical overview.

Note, the latest release of the ONS Business insights and impact on the UK economy will also be released on 2 July, this includes environment-based questions such as business climate concern, adaptations and barriers to action.

1. Comparisons between overall support for renewable energy and locally framed questions about solar and wind farms should be interpreted with caution, due to differences in question wording and response options. ↩

2. While this may be a seasonal effect due to energy demands, it is also worth noting the start of the Middle East conflict prior to the fieldwork period. ↩