ARK Consultancy welcomes £50m pilot for decarbonising of homes

By Chris Seeley · 8 July 2020

We welcome the £50m pilot for de-carbonising social housing as any funding is helpful and if costs can be constrained to the lower end of estimates at £20k per dwelling the pilot could potentially improve 2,500 homes.

The government has set a target to make all homes carbon neutral by 2050 and we therefore welcome a pilot that will support this target and crucially cut energy bills for many residents currently living in fuel poverty. We understand that heat pumps, insulation and double glazing could be amongst the retrofit measures delivered via this fund.

But with 1626 providers who might be eligible the funds will not stretch far so as a sector we must make sure that the lessons learnt from the pilot are widely disseminated, that the technologies used are transferable and that the jobs created benefit our communities.

The social housing pilot was announced by Rishi Sunak today as part of his summer statement including a £2bn green homes grant scheme for existing private sector homes where owner occupiers and landlords can apply for vouchers to make their homes more energy efficient.