HOUSING
UNLOCKING SUSTAINABLE WARMTH COMPETITION FUNDING WITH HEAT PUMPS The UK has committed to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, and housing will play a key part in making that viable. Nick Huston, Future Energy Business Manager at Daikin UK, talks to PSBJ about recent changes to the LAD Scheme and explains how local authorities can be supported in their application process for funding.
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boilers are set to be G asbanned in new homes
Supporting an ambitious target
from 2025 – and there’s a need to retrofit the country’s existing housing stock with sustainable heating solutions at the same time. The role heat pumps have to play in decarbonising the UK’s housing stock is widely acknowledged, and the Government’s target is for 600,000 to be installed per year by 2028. These new deadlines and targets mean that, for local authorities in particular, creative ways are needed to deliver green homes, critically, that don’t add to the acute financial pressures they’re already under.
While there is substantial Government funding available to local authorities to make housing improvements, the landscape is fast-moving, with various schemes, funds and grants launching and closing all the time. In July 2020, the Government launched the Local Authority Delivery (LAD) Scheme, with up to £500m of support for English Local Authorities to use when improving the energy efficiency of homes occupied by those on low incomes. Phases 1a, 1b and 2 of the LAD Scheme have been awarded, with all projects’ allocated funding due to be
finished by December 2021. And in mid-June of this year, the Government announced a change of plan regarding Phase 3. £200m from Phase 3 of the LAD Scheme has now been combined with £150m from the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG), to create a new £350m fund called the Sustainable Warmth Competition. Local authorities, and the social housing providers they are associated with, can apply for funding, with applications subject to a minimum bid of £250,000.
The new fund is split into two elements: 1. The LAD Scheme Phase 3 This element is to deliver upgrades to low-income households in the most energy-inefficient homes in England – that are on the gas grid. This is in addition to the £500m already awarded via the earlier phases of the LAD scheme. The main criteria for on-gas grid properties will remain the same as those in the first two phases of LAD, including the cost caps for owner/occupier and private or social landlord rented properties. For owner/occupier properties, the maximum average subsidy is £10,000, with no contribution towards the cost of the upgrade required. For rented properties, the maximum is £5000 and the landlord must fund at least one third of the total cost.
