Fuel efficiency funding secured

‘Fuel-poor’ Herefordshire households are to get nearly £2.5 million to improve energy efficiency in their homes and to install renewable heating.

Herefordshire Council today (March 25) accepted Sustainable Warmth grant funding of up to £2,442,000 from the Government via the Midlands Energy Hub, which the council says will be enough to help 150 households in the county.

Households will need to currently have demonstrably poor heat efficiency, and their residents will have to have a joint income of no more than £30,000.

Social and private rented, privately owned and park homes are all eligible.

Funding, typically around £15,000 per household, will be used to:

• replace broken and inefficient heating systems, particularly in off-gas areas, with air source heat pump systems, NOT fossil fuel-powered systems;
• install internal and external insulation, double-glazed windows and insulated doors;
• install high-efficiency storage heaters and combined solar thermal and photovoltaic panels.

“These measures are often not feasible under other funding streams, (yet) complement each other from a whole-house perspective, which is a central ambition of the proposed scheme,” the council’s decision notice says.

The council will set aside 10 per cent of the grant to run the scheme. It does not have to match-fund any of the spending.

According to the council, fuel poverty “remains a significant issue in Herefordshire”, with nearly 14,000 households, or one in six affected due to a combination of low incomes, large numbers of older properties, and poor mains gas network coverage.

It will now tender for installers to implement the scheme.