£5.5 million social decarbon fund for housing in Sandwell
Millions of pounds has been accepted by Sandwell council to reduce fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency in the local authority’s social housing stock.
Grant funding of up to £5.5 million from the government’s department for energy security and net zero will be used to fix up council dwellings across the borough, according to a report debated at Sandwell council’s cabinet meeting.
The grant funding, which comes as part of a consortium of bids by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), will fix up 2,076 homes in the region.
Sandwell council contributed the most amount of homes with 625 properties.
They include external wall insulation, improved flat roof insulation, and cavity wall insulation.
The local authority hopes the improvements will increase the energy performance of social rented homes and reduce carbon emissions
In particular, the council has focused on improving their social dwellings’ Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating to a C or above.
In Sandwell, 17,779 homes have an energy performance certificate of D or below, representing 63 per cent of all social housing stock.
The grant provides funding for up to 50 per cent of total project costs.
The council will contribute a minimum of 50 per cent of additional money to the project, mainly £16 million from its Housing Revenue Account (HRA), which is a pot of money dedicated to social housing – to match fund the government’s offer.
The project is part of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), a government initiative to reduce carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050.
The pot of money from the government has allocated up to £800 million of funding to support the installation of energy performance measures in social homes in England.
