Great Yarmouth Borough Council has been awarded more than £8m to upgrade local homes with free energy efficiency improvements to help people cut bills and reduce carbon emissions.
Under Government plans to upgrade social housing nationally – and following a detailed application – the council has received a grant of £5,498,108 to support investment in insulation and low carbon heating across its housing stock.
Known as the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3, the money builds on previous grant allocations which will see more than 500 households in the borough receive free money-saving improvements such as new boilers, insulation and solar panels installed by the end of this year.
The new programme will see an additional 524 social housing properties receive upgrades.
At the same time, the council has also announced it has also been awarded £2,638,910 under the Government’s Warm Homes Local Grant to provide energy performance upgrades and low carbon heating for low-income households that have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) between D and G and are privately owned (and are owner occupied or privately rented).
The Government says the energy shocks of recent years show an urgent need to upgrade homes and secure Britain’s energy independence. It adds that the work will protect billpayers, reduce fuel poverty and get the UK back on track to meet climate goals and support investment in green jobs.
Councillor Graham Plant, Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s portfolio holder for Operational Property and Asset Management, said: ‘’We are delighted that our application for funding has been successful and that the Government has made this commitment to improving homes for people across the borough of Great Yarmouth.
‘’This is a significant amount of finance and will enable us – working with our contracted partners – to make real changes to help people in social housing and private homes save substantial sums on their heating bills where they meet the eligibility criteria. Our previous work to upgrade hundreds of homes has been a major success and we are confident this will be too.’’
Delivery of both programmes will begin later this year and will mean more of the borough’s housing meets an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C standard, delivering warm, energy-efficient homes, reducing carbon emissions and fuel bills as well as tackling fuel poverty.
Working with local authorities, the Government has committed to upgrading five million homes over the next five years to cut bills for families and deliver warmer homes to slash fuel poverty. It is a key part of its ‘second mission’ to transform Britain into a clean energy superpower, including providing the country with clean energy by 2030, reducing bills and transitioning homes to clean heat as part of a wider ambition to reach net zero by 2050.
The improvements will be available for homes of all fuel types, including on-gas households (those heated by mains gas), and off-gas households (those heated by electricity, oil, coal or liquid petroleum gas) and will include items such as solar panels, batteries and low carbon heating.
The work in the borough – which will be completed over the next three years – is designed to ensure homes are healthy living environments, thermally comfortable, efficient and well-adapted to climate change. It will also support the green economy, local supply chains and skilled jobs for tradespeople.
