Liverpool City Region Combined has secured almost £40m to upgrade homes with measures to reduce fuel bills and slash carbon emissions. Tony McDonough reports
Around 3,600 homes across Liverpool city region will benefit from almost £40m in funding to help reduce energy bills and slash carbon emissions.
In October, the Liverpool City Region Combined (CA) secured £11.3m from the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Green Homes Grant scheme to equip 1,100 homes with energy-saving measures.
Liverpool energy systems specialist Next Energy won an £8.1m contract to install energy-saving measures such as insulation, double glazing, upgraded home heating systems, and other renewable and low carbon technologies, in more than 800 properties across Liverpool city region as part of that deal.
Now the CA has won a further £28.5m from the Government to offer upgrades across an extra 2,500 homes in the six local authority areas – Liverpool, Wirral, Knowsley, Halton, Sefton and St Helens.
The primary purpose of this funding is to raise the energy efficiency rating of low-income and low Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rated homes (those with D, E, F or G) both on the gas grid and off the gas grid. This funding will also support low-income households with the transition to low-carbon heating.
Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “At a time when more and more people are at risk of fuel poverty because of rising prices and widespread supply issues, we are doing everything we can to help people across our region heat their homes as cheaply and efficiently as possible without heating the planet too.
“We’re investing nearly £40m to help put money in the pockets of 3,600 of our most vulnerable and disadvantaged households by improving the energy efficiency of their homes and cutting their fuel bills.
“This is only a down payment on our ambitions, though. We want all of our housing to be brought up to a decent standard. If the government are 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.”
The CA is also developing a Modern Methods of Construction programme that will develop technology to retrofit energy-efficient measures to existing homes and build new homes using new methods of construction.
The programme will aim to retrofit 10,000 homes over the next 10 years, bringing them up to at least the EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) “C” rating for energy efficiency, as part of a post-COVID recovery stimulus package. It will also see the upskilling the workforce by applying new methods and systems of refurbishments and construction.
Cllr Graham Morgan, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Portfolio Holder for Housing and Spatial Planning, added: “We are busting a gut on the ground, here in the city region, working with our local authorities to retrofit energy saving measure to as many houses as possible.”