Wolverhampton’s social housing tenants are set to benefit from free upgrades to make their homes more energy efficient and cheaper to run. Stuart Anderson MP is delighted that Wolverhampton Council is being equipped with £5.172 million from the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to offer free upgrades to tenants’ homes including insulation, double glazing, and the installation of heat pumps. Stuart welcomed the funding, which he said will enable the Council to plan and deliver more retrofit projects, tackle fuel poverty, and improve their residents’ homes.
Stuart has endorsed the funding for Wolverhampton, one of 42 local councils and housing associations across England receiving a share of £75 million. Match funding from applicants provides an additional £139 million. It will see 8,800 homes provided with free efficiency upgrades, saving households £400 a year on their energy bills on average while supporting 1,300 jobs in the UK’s retrofit industry. The £3.8 billion scheme runs over a ten-year period to 2030. It will upgrade a significant amount of the social housing stock currently below Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C in England up to that standard. The Fund has allocated over £1 billion since 2019 and is working to reach around 100,000 households. Almost half of all homes in England are now rated Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C or above, up from 14% in 2010.
Stuart has championed greater investment in home energy efficiency and welcomed the Government's ‘Help to Heat’ schemes to ensure that homes will be warmer and cheaper to heat. They will deliver upgrades to over half a million homes through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) scheme, and Energy Company Obligation (ECO). The Government is investing £6.6 billion this Parliament and, at the Autumn Statement in 2022, a further £6.05 billion was announced, for making buildings cleaner and warmer by improving the energy efficiency and low carbon heating of homes and businesses, reducing the reliance on fossil fuel heating and easing household energy bills in the longer term.
Stuart Anderson MP said: “Energy efficiency is the best way to lift people out of fuel poverty, contributing to the long-term reduction of energy bills as well as reducing carbon emissions. So I am delighted that Wolverhampton’s social housing tenants are set to benefit from free upgrades to make their homes more energy efficient and cheaper to run as part of the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. This £5 million investment for Wolverhampton will help the Council to plan and deliver more retrofit projects, including insulation, double glazing, and the installation of heat pumps. This will help some of the lowest income households across the city by delivering warm and energy efficient homes and improving tenant’s wellbeing.”
Secretary of State for Energy Security Claire Coutinho said: “Our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund is helping families to keep their homes warm and their bills down. We want to support hard-working families to make changes, rather than burdening them with unnecessary costs.
This funding today will help up to a further 8,800 households save around £400 a year on their energy bills.
Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance Lord Callanan said: “Already working to deliver free home upgrades to around 100,000 social homes, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund is helping low-income families have cheaper bills and a warmer home. We’re now going even further to cut energy bills for more social tenants, all while supporting an additional 1,300 jobs in the UK’s retrofit industry.”
The Government's website* helps users get tailored recommendations for their home that could make their property cheaper to heat and keep warm. Consumers can also call the home retrofit phoneline service on 0800 098 7950 (Mon-Fri 8am to 6pm, except public holidays) and Saturdays (9am to 12pm).
For more details, please visit https://www.gov.uk/improve-energy-efficiency.