Stevenage Borough Council successful in its bid for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund
The funding announced last week will see around 400 social homes in Stevenage with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D or lower receive upgrades to improve its energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. This includes fitting, if required, wall and loft insulation, double glazing and solar panels. £179 million has been offered to 69 projects for Wave 1 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund with Stevenage successful in bidding for and receiving £1.8m of it. It is the council’s intention to bid for Wave 2 funding later this year, which they hope will continue their progress to significantly raise overall energy efficiency performance across the town.
Upgrades are expected to be completed by the end of March 2023, supporting lower income and more vulnerable households.
Cllr John Gardner, portfolio holder for Environment and Regeneration at Stevenage Borough Council, said: “With energy bills rising from April, we welcome this funding from a financial point of view, but also environmental perspective as well as part of our goal to become a net zero emissions town by 2030. The more we can reduce our carbon emissions the better it is for Stevenage, the planet and also our pockets.”
Cllr Jeannette Thomas, portfolio holder for Housing, Health and Older People at Stevenage Borough Council, said: “This is great news for our residents in social housing – improving their home energy rating will make a big difference to them and their energy usage. I’m also pleased to see this funding is aimed at the residents that are most in need of energy efficiency improvements, ensuring we are bringing everybody up to a decent EPC rating.”
The funding will allow the council to improve the least energy-efficient social homes in the town and ensure that heat loss prevention measures, such as insulation, are installed effectively and to a rigorous performance standard. It will also ensure energy efficiency measures installed are chosen in a way that minimises the potential for them having to be replaced in the future.