Commenting on the government’s latest announcement of a further £6 billion to cut energy use and bills, managing director Gary Lawson said: “This announcement brings forward very welcome funding for the sector. This package doubles the capital funding already committed and is set to help an extra 200,000 households across the country.
“We’re especially pleased to see that private owner-occupiers and private landlords will benefit from the funding, with an extra £1.5 billion for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and a new energy efficiency grant providing £400m to households in England. All of this, alongside ECO for fabric measures, allows us to maximise the available routes to tie together into whole-house decarbonisation proposals.
“The new local authority retrofit scheme will have a vital role, with £500m to support low-income and cold homes. Meanwhile, with £1.25 billion for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, alongside several other initiatives, we know what this spending commitment will mean for real people. Through SHDF we are already supporting around 16,500 vulnerable people with around £145 million of energy efficiency upgrades, which will save around 36 GWh of annual energy bill savings.
“Through the work we have delivered to date through Demonstrator, Wave 1 and Wave 2, we have seen first-hand that it does so much more than work towards net zero – it makes an absolutely life-changing difference to many residents.
“We look forward to working with our social housing provider partners on ongoing and future schemes – and to ongoing collaboration with the wider decarbonisation sector to help improve the condition of households across the country, while also innovating and increasing skills to deliver this critical work.”
