Up to 170,000 homes in England will benefit from energy efficiency upgrades under the rollout of the Warm Homes Plan.

Government support of £1.8bn will be allocated to local authorities and social housing providers, targeted towards low-income households and tenants living in social housing, to boost energy efficiency in the form of insulation, solar panels and heat pumps.

The Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund will deliver up to £1.29bn of funding to 144 projects across England with the Warm Homes: Local Grant allocating £500m to 73 projects across 270 local authorities over the next three years.

The funding allocations follows the recent announcement on the Warm Homes Discount with almost three million more households, including almost one million households with children, becoming eligible for £150 to pay their energy bills next winter, as the Government consults on proposals to offer more support to consumers across the country.

This comes after other government support to deliver warmer, more energy efficient homes and protect consumers, including almost doubling the budget for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in the next financial year to £295m, along with allocating an extra £55m for the rest of this financial year. Perhaps most controversially, also removing the rule requiring heat pumps to be installed at least one metre from a property’s boundary.

Gavin Smart, chief executive of the Chartered Institute for Housing (CIH), said: “The strong demand for this funding highlights how vital energy efficiency investment is for the social housing sector. CIH will continue to work with Government and our members to support the effective rollout of this funding and advocate for the long-term investment needed to make all homes warmer and safer.”

---