Hundreds more Council homes will be retrofitted to become energy efficient
Published: 23 March 2023
Funding has been secured for 245 more Council houses in Exeter to be fully retrofitted to improve their energy efficiency over the next two years.
Retrofitting includes energy cutting measures including exterior wall insulation, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, new windows and doors and draft proofing measures, as well as heat pumps and solar panel installation.
Read more - Work to retrofit Council homes in Exeter recognised in national awards
The programme is designed to save residents money on fuel bills and lower the city’s carbon footprint by reducing carbon emissions.
The Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund has provided a grant of £1.494m, which the Council’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA) will match fund with £1.998m.
It means a total programme investment of £3.493m for the full retrofit of 245 Council properties during the next two financial years, starting from April 2023.
Cllr Barbara Denning, Lead Councillor for Customer Services & Council Housing, said: “We have already retrofitted more than 400 Council properties in Exeter - this is saving money for our residents on their fuel bills at a time of the cost of energy has spiralled. It is also cutting our carbon footprint.
“This work makes homes much more comfortable to live in and improves the quality of life for our residents, and I am so pleased that we can now extend this programme further.
“In Exeter we building new Passivhaus Council houses which is the gold standard in energy efficiency. But we have thousands of older properties that we need to make much more energy efficient, and I am delighted that we are now well on the way to achieving this.”
The announcement of the funding awards was made by the Government’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.
Nationally, more than 115,000 homes across England are to get upgrades to improve their energy efficiency and save residents money on their bills as the government announces the allocation of nearly £2 billion in funding.
The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant are collectively worth £1.4 billion, which will be used to fund energy-saving measures ranging from loft insulation to new windows.
An additional £1.1 billion in match funding for social housing provided by local authorities, providers of social housing and charities will bring the total investment to £2.5 billion to upgrade social and private homes in England.
The money will go towards improvements to vulnerable households and off-gas grid homes with an EPC rating of D or below and could save tenants between £220 and £400 a year on energy bills.