Around 10,000 homes across Liverpool city region to be retrofitted with energy-efficient measures as Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram secures extra £42m from the Government. Tony McDonough reports
Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has secured an extra £42m from the Government to retrofit around homes across Liverpool city region with energy efficiency measures.
This will take the total number of homes in the retrofit programme to around 10,000. Low income households will benefit from measures including external wall insulation, roof insulation, heat pumps and solar panels.
Aim of the programme is to ensure as many homes as possible in Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Halton are more energy efficient and cheaper to heat.
“With the cost of living crisis continuing to place some of our most vulnerable households under increasing strain, this funding really couldn’t have arrived at a better time,” said Mr Rotheram.
“To date our retrofit programme has helped thousands of households across our area to save hundreds of pounds on their energy bills. It has enabled us to dramatically reduce household carbon emissions across the region.
“Currently, emissions from domestic properties account for nearly a third of all the emissions we produce as a city region. It is a statistic that we simply cannot afford to ignore, especially if we are serious about our ambition to be net zero by 2040.”
Around 60% of Liverpool city region’s 700,000 homes are rated below the EPC Band C standard. The Mayor has previously called on the Government to demonstrate its commitment to reaching its own retrofit and net zero targets.
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Cllr David Baines, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Portfolio Holder for Climate Emergency and Renewable Energy, added: “If we are to successfully reach our target of becoming net zero carbon by 2040, we need to halve our energy use in the city region.
“The situation in our homes is even more challenging, as we will have to cut energy use by 60%.
“We are working really hard with our local authorities to retrofit energy saving measures to as many houses as possible, to save people money on their bills, tackle fuel poverty and help the environment, but there is a limit to how much we can do on our own.
£31.7m of the funding has been secured from the government’s national Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. The Combined Authority will work with 14 housing associations over the next two years.