Great Yarmouth Borough Council awarded £1.378m to improve homes

The funding was announced last month after the council successfully bid for finance as part of Wave 2.2 of the Department for Energy and Net Zero's Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

Great Yarmouth's funding forms part of £75m from the Government to upgrade social housing stock in England which falls below Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C and is intended to bring homes up to that standard.

The council will now be carrying out work on 173 of its homes in the borough and will match-fund the Government finance with money from its capital Housing Revenue Account.

It intends to use E.ON Energy services, with whom it has worked on previous similar projects, to deliver the upgrades, which will be completed by the end of March 2025.

The targeted properties will see a range of improvements, including loft Insulation, cavity wall insulation, air source heat humps and solar panels.

Councillor Graham Plant, Great Yarmouth Borough Council's portfolio holder for Operational Property and Asset Management, said: ''The council put together an excellent bid for this funding and we are delighted to have been successful.

''The money means that almost 200 homes in the borough can look forward to a range of improvements that will have a significant impact on the lives of our residents by making them warmer, increasing heating efficiency and reducing bills.

''Improving the quality and standard of our social housing stock in Great Yarmouth is a key priority and this new money will help us continue that ongoing work across the borough.''

The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund formed part of the Government's 2019 manifesto which committed £3.8bn over ten years to improve the energy performance of social rented homes on the pathway to Net Zero 2050.

The fund aims to deliver warm, energy-efficient homes, reduce carbon emissions and fuel bills, tackle fuel poverty and support green jobs. It initially awarded about £62m of funding as an initial investment to test innovative approaches to retrofitting at scale.

This was followed by a further £179m of funding to support the installation of energy performance measures in up to 20,000 social homes in England. Then £778 million of funding, targeted at 90,000 social homes, was allocated in March 2023.

As well as improving the comfort, health and well-being of social housing tenants by delivering warmer and more energy-efficient homes, the fund aims to support economic resilience and a green recovery in response to the economic impacts of Covid-19, supporting thousands of jobs.

It is also intended to develop the retrofit sector, creating the conditions for growth in the retrofit supply chain capacity and capabilities, boosting productivity and innovation in the construction sector.