From this week, the homes of 50,000 households will be upgraded with green improvements from a £562 million fund, reducing carbon emissions and supporting thousands of green jobs across the country, the government has announced.
The £562 million government funding will enable over 200 local authorities across England and Scotland to fund a nationwide upgrade of the UK’s least energy efficient and fuel-poor homes. This will help to transform over 50,000 low-income households and social housing properties and support over 8,000 energy sector jobs annually, including local plumbers, builders and tradespeople.
The schemes will include measures such as cavity wall, underfloor and loft insulation, and replacing gas boilers with low carbon alternatives like heat pumps where appropriate. It will also include installing solar panels on many social housing, helping residents on low-incomes create their own green energy to power their homes.
UK Business and Energy Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said: “We are ensuring households across the country enjoy warmer homes that are cheaper to heat and emit fewer emissions – all while creating new work for local plumbers, builders and tradespeople.
“This is an initial down payment on the UK government’s plan to invest over £9 billion into eradicating fuel poverty, improving the lives and homes of low-income households. This is yet another important step we are taking to eliminate our contribution to climate change and build back greener from the pandemic.”
Housing Minister Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP said the challenges involved in improving the energy efficiency of our homes and reducing carbon emissions are substantial.
“However, the investment being announced today along with our Future Homes Standard will help ensure that existing and newly built homes will be fit for the future, better for the environment and affordable for households to heat using low carbon energy,” he continued.
Emissions from domestic properties currently account for around 25% of the UK’s carbon emissions and is a priority area for the government. These green home projects will help cut over 70,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually - the equivalent of the total direct and indirect carbon footprint produced by around 9,000 UK households.
This is the latest step in the government’s plan to eradicate fuel poverty, manage energy bills, and reduce carbon emissions from domestic buildings. This will help both low-income families and social housing tenants, with 39% of social housing believed to be below Energy Performance Certificate C in England.
Cllr David Renard, Local Government Association housing spokesperson, said: “It is good the Government is investing in boosting energy efficiency in social and council housing, which will save households money, combat fuel poverty and help reduce carbon emissions.
“Councils are leading the way tackling climate change and are committed to delivering green improvements, but have faced challenges with the competitive, short-term nature of grant funding, which requires councils to have sufficient staffing and capacity to apply.
“Providing long-term funding would better enable councils to help achieve our national net zero ambitions, supported by giving councils the flexibility to set energy efficiency standards above the current Building Regulation Standards.”
RIBA President, Alan Jones,
said he was pleased to see the Government prioritise the upgrade of
lower-income homes, but claimed this pledge seriously underplays the scale of
the problem.
“At least 19 million UK homes require retrofitting: the £562m announced
today to fund the upgrade of 50,000 is simply not enough,” he said.
“As the Environmental Audit Committee recommended earlier this week, to
reach the Government’s net zero target, we need an adequately funded National
Retrofit Strategy.
“The Strategy must also consider how people can be encouraged to update
their own homes by reforming taxes such as stamp duty, council and inheritance
tax – something we’ve been calling for through our Greener Homes campaign.
“The Government must go further and faster to save our shameful housing
stock.”
