Extra £1.25bn boost for social housing contractors

Aaron Morby 1 year ago
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The industry has welcomed the government’s allocation of an extra £1.25bn to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

With match funding, the award will see around £2.5bn pumped into insulating or retrofitting 140,000 homes between 2025 and 2028.

Social housing contractors said the allocation provided all-important long-term certainty for businesses.

The Government announcement on how it intends to spend the £6bn first unveiled in 2022 Autumn spending statement, also saw an extra £1.5bn allocated to fund heat pump upgrades.

David Morgan, managing director of Wates Property Services said: “This is an important development that demonstrates the commitment Government has to improving the energy efficiency of social housing properties.

“Support like this is vital to our continued investment in innovation, skills, training and technology on the journey to net zero carbon.”

Derek Horrocks, chair of the National Home Decarbonisation Group, representing all the big social housing contractors, said: “This is something we called for and will give us that longer term to develop the area-based approach and use the economies of scale it affords.

“The past five years have seen more government investment in decarbonisation than ever before.

“Excellent progress has been made, with nearly 50% of properties in England now having an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of C – up from just 14% in 2010.

“The government has now committed to spend £12.6bn by 2028, a move that will genuinely make a difference to thousands.”

Breakdown of £6bn capital funding (2025 to 2028)


  • Boiler Upgrade Scheme, extra £1.5bn to support move to energy efficient, low-carbon heat pumps
  • New £400m energy efficiency grant, launching in 2025, for households in England to make changes such as bigger radiators or better insulation
  • New local authority retrofit scheme, allocated £500m to support up to 60,000 low-income and cold homes, including those off the gas grid, with measures such as insulation
  • Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, allocated £1.25bn to support up to 140,000 social homes to be insulated or retrofitted
  • Green Heat Network Fund, allocated £485m to help up to 60,000 homes and buildings access affordable, low carbon heating through new heat networks
  • Heat Network Efficiency Scheme, allocated £45m to improve around 100 existing heat networks, in a move that will reduce bills and improve reliability
  • Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, allocated £225m, to help businesses transition to a low-carbon future

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