Green light for £3.2m of energy improvements

A project to improve the energy efficiency of hundreds of the lowest EPC-rated council properties in Redditch has received government funding.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced earlier this week (March 22) that Redditch was successful in bidding for £1.6m from the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund for work on Redditch Borough Council properties.

Redditch Borough Council will be matching the funding bid, taking the total investment for energy improvements to £3.2m.

A consortium bid was made to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.1 by the Midlands Net Zero Hub which is accountable to Nottingham City Council.

With £1.6m already agreed for the project by the council, it means about 280 council properties identified as having low EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) ratings will now receive £3.2m of energy efficiency measures in a project that will run until mid-2025.

Those measures will include loft, cavity wall, and external wall insulation, double glazed windows, improved ventilation, high heat-retention storage heaters, and solar photovoltaic panels.

Deputy Chief Executive of Redditch Borough Council, Sue Hanley, said: “We’re delighted to have secured this latest funding, together with other consortium partners. Doubling the £1.6m the council recently approved through our Capital Investment Programme will help us improve some of our least energy-efficient properties, making them warmer and reducing their energy use and carbon footprint.

“We’ve done a lot of work to identify issues like this, using funding streams like this, so we can make real, substantial improvements for our properties and tenants.”

The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund is a government-funded initiative to improve the energy efficiency of social rented homes as part of the pathway to Net Zero 2050. It aims to deliver warm, energy efficient homes, reduce carbon emissions and fuel bills, tackle fuel poverty and support green jobs. A key target is to raise the energy performance of social rented homes to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C.

The project is being delivered for Redditch Borough Council by Energy Specifics and Novus Solutions who helped prepare the funding bid, and work to contact tenants of the council properties that will be improved, in Batchley and Winyates East, will begin soon.

For more information, see www.redditchbc.gov.uk/housing.