The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is set to receive an additional £11.1m to work with nine housing associations to improve the energy performance of nearly 1,250 social housing properties, tackling fuel poverty and reducing carbon emissions.
The money will take the combined authority’s total investment in measures to tackle fuel poverty and reduce emissions to £54.5m, which will mean energy efficiency measures can be fitted to the properties of 5,171 low-income households.
This additional funding will enable measures including external wall insulation, roof insulation, energy efficient doors and windows, heat pumps and solar panels to be fitted to 1,242 homes across the region.
The £11.1m of funding has been secured from the government’s national Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and is one of several national housing retrofit funding streams launched in recent months.
This is the beginning of a 15-year programme to enable all housing to achieve the national target for all homes to attain an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of Band C by 2035, where practicable and contribute to the region’s net zero carbon target of 2040.
Commenting, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram said:
“In the aftermath of an incredibly volatile week that saw our region’s most vulnerable households take another battering with a 54% energy bill rise and an interest rate hike, this funding is welcome news.
“I want to ensure that every family has the right to heat their homes cheaply and efficiently, without heating the planet too. We are already making a start on turning that vision into a reality.
“This funding means that we will be able to invest nearly £55m to help put money in the pockets of more than 5,000 of our most disadvantaged households by making their homes more energy efficient and cutting their fuel bills.
“But there are 700,000 homes across the Liverpool City Region. This money is welcome, but it is only a down payment on our wider ambitions.
“If the government is serious about reaching their own net zero targets, they need to work with us to secure the investment we need to help make that happen.”
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Portfolio Holder for Housing and Spatial Planning, Councillor Graham Morgan added:
“Along with our local authorities and housing associations, we are working very hard to retrofit energy saving measures to as many houses as possible, to save people money, tackle fuel poverty and to help our journey to becoming net zero by 2040.
“We know we have a big job on our hands as more than 60% of the 720,000 homes in the city region are below EPC band C, making them wasteful and expensive to keep warm.
“We, and our partners, are doing everything we can, but we need government to support us so that we can help more people more quickly.”
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