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Minister fails to provide details on future of £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund
The future of the government’s manifesto commitment to carry out a 10-year, £3.8bn programme to decarbonise social housing stock remains unclear after the energy minister would not be drawn on whether it would be replaced by the new Green Homes Grant.
In an interview with Inside Housing, Kwasi Kwarteng, minister for business, energy and clean growth, failed to clarify whether the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund put forward in the 2019 Conservative manifesto would be set up separately to the £2bn Green Homes Grant announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak in his July statement.
Asked if the Green Homes Grant will replace the decarbonisation fund, Mr Kwarteng said: “Obviously that will be a matter for the Budget and any statement from the chancellor, so on that basis I would say let’s see what the chancellor says.
“My understanding is that this is a step towards that target and the spending has been brought forward to accelerate the green recovery.”
In July, as part of a statement outlining new policies aimed at stimulating the economy to aid recovery after the coronavirus crisis, Mr Sunak announced the creation of the new £2bn Green Homes Grant fund which would allow owner-occupiers and landlords to apply for vouchers to make their homes more energy efficient.
The chancellor also announced that a £50m fund would be set up to pilot approaches to decarbonise social housing stock.
Despite not being drawn on whether the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund would be paid for as laid out in the manifesto, Mr Kwarteng did indicate that there could be more funding coming down the line for the government’s manifesto pledges.
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Mr Kwarteng said: “In terms of the monies, the scheme runs to March 31 2021, but of course the manifesto commitments suggest there may be more spending coming along the way but I’m not in a position to discuss that now.”
The Conservatives’ costings document for its general election manifesto pledged a Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund totalling £3.8bn over 10 years, including £60m in 2021/22.
Mr Kwarteng did confirm that that the new Green Homes Grant will give more than 600,000 homeowners in England up to £10,000 to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes, such as installing insulation, heat pumps and draft proofing. He also said that the scheme would be open to both private and social landlords.
It will operate via a voucher system of up to £5,000 for homeowners and will cover 100% of the costs for families on low incomes up to a maximum of £10,000.
In order utilise the £2bn Green Homes Grant, tradespeople must gain accreditation via the government-backed Trustmark or Microgeneration Certification Scheme.
The low-income vouchers will be for households with a joint income of less than £30,000 a year, the minister said.
Councils will have access to £500m of the Green Homes Grant and have been invited to bid for an initial pot for £200m for projects that will be completed by March 2021.
The £50m pilot to seek innovative approaches to retrofitting social housing will be rolled out in September, with the money to be spent by end of March 2021, the minister confirmed.
