Inefficient homes in Gloucestershire set to benefit from £5.25m in energy-saving improvements
Tewkesbury Borough Council – along with six other local authorities in a consortium led by Stroud District Council – has been awarded over £5 million of grant funding to improve hundreds of inefficient homes across Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire. The consortium successfully bid for part of the £430 million Sustainable Warmth Competition being invested by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy across England from 2022. The funding will be used to install improvements to insulation and heating, as well as solar and heat pump technologies on suitable homes.
The £5.25m will be targeted towards the region’s least efficient properties – those with Energy Performance Certificates rated D, E, F or G – and will aim to benefit households most at risk of fuel poverty. £1m will be used to improve 100 properties on the gas network, and the rest will increase the efficiency of 200 properties off the gas grid, mainly in rural areas.
The seven local authorities already work together to provide the highly successful Warm and Well programme, which is delivered by local charity Severn Wye Energy Agency to support the nearly 40,000 households in the region who suffer from fuel poverty. In Tewkesbury Borough alone, there are approximately 4,000 households living in properties that are too inefficient to heat and power affordably. This figure is expected to rise as the cost of energy increases this winter and into next year. The funding will be distributed to households that meet certain eligibility criteria so that it helps them out of fuel poverty.
Tewkesbury Borough Council’s lead member for housing, Councillor Gill Blackwell, said: “This funding is extremely welcome, enabling us not only to further reduce the county’s carbon footprint but also to improve the lives of our most vulnerable residents. By targeting the most energy inefficient homes in the region, we will make a valuable contribution to reducing carbon emissions, while, on a more personal level, insulation and heating improvements to inefficient homes will enable us to lift people out of fuel poverty.”
From January, eligible households will be invited to apply to take part in the programme and will receive the most appropriate measures to improve the efficiency of their property. Funding for work on properties on the gas network is delivered through the Government’s Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery (LAD) scheme; while off-gas properties will receive funding through the new Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) scheme.
Work is expected to be completed by March 2023, by which point 300 Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire homes will be warmer, healthier and more energy efficient. Households can register their interest in receiving funding towards efficiency improvements by calling the Warm and Well advice line on freephone 0800 500 3076.
