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Three Herts associations make joint bid to decarbonise 1,400 homes
Three Hertfordshire housing associations have submitted a joint funding bid to undertake energy improvement works across 1,400 homes.
The three landlords – B3Living, Settle and Watford Community Housing – have submitted the bid to the latest wave of the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF).
The second wave of the SHDF was announced in October, with an £800m pot, which is expected to enable energy efficiency upgrades in 100,000 social homes.
The three landlords, who bid in partnership with Dacorum Borough Council, are seeking £13.5m from the SHDF, alongside side a pledge of £25m in their own funding.
The money will go towards making buildings more energy-efficient with upgrades including loft insulation, external wall insulation, draught proofing, installation of PV panels and low energy lighting.
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Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund: majority of councils failed to retrofit single home by deadlineThe three landlords are part of an organisation called Greener Herts, which was formed in an attempt to allow landlords to achieve more “tangible results” when making homes more energy-efficient and cost-effective for customers.
The organisation has a joint ambition to achieve a completely net zero carbon footprint by 2050.
Gavin Cansfield, chief executive at Settle, said on behalf of the partnership: “Greener Herts and Dacorum Borough Council have come together to submit this bid as part of our work to improve homes and meet our targets to be net zero by 2050, or before. No one needs me to tell them how important this area is. The benefits of lower-carbon homes are numerous, including many benefits to those living within them, as well as to the environment.
“Working in partnership is vital – the more we join forces, the more influence we have. We look forward to hearing if our bid has been successful in the new year and will continue to focus on producing energy-efficient homes whatever the outcome.”
The government’s SHDF is intended to provide £3.8bn of funding in England over a 10-year period to help landlords with the costs of decarbonising their affordable housing stock.
The fund’s first wave saw £179m offered to 69 projects across the country earlier this year, enabling the upgrade of 20,000 social housing properties with poor energy performance.
It followed an initial “demonstrator” fund, which saw £61m allocated to retrofit more than 2,100 social homes in 2021.
But the scheme proved slow to get off the ground, and has been hampered by supply chain delays.
Inside Housing revealed earlier this year that more than half of the councils that received funding as part of the initiative failed to retrofit a single home by the project’s deadline.
