Almost 4,000 low-income households in Liverpool city region will benefit from a fund worth more than £43m to help decarbonise their homes and cut fuel bills. Tony McDonough reports
An extra £3.6m has been secured from the Government to decarbonise homes across Liverpool city region taking the total to more than £43m.
Last year the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (CA) secured £11.3m in Government cash, via the North West Energy Hub, as part of a drive to fit energy efficiency measures to 7,000 homes across the North West.
With the latest cash injection the CA is now investing a total of £43.4m to install energy efficiency measures to reduce carbon emissions and tackle fuel poverty in the properties of 3,929 low-income households in Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Halton.
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Measures include solar panels, improved insulation, double glazing and air-source heat pumps. Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham 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.
“This latest batch of funding means that we have invested nearly £45m to help put money in the pockets of 4,000 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 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.”
According to Cllr Graham Morgan, CA Portfolio Holder for Housing and Spatial Planning, More than 60% of the 720,000 homes in the city region are at EPC band D and below and are wasteful and expensive to keep warm.
He added: “Along with our local authorities we are working very hard to retrofit energy saving measures to as many houses as possible, to save people money, tackle fuel poverty and to help our journey to becoming net zero by 2040.”