£1.48 million grant to improve energy efficiency of Council homes
A £1.48 million grant has been obtained to improve the energy efficiency of social rent houses in St Albans District.
St Albans City and District Council gained the funding with a successful bid to the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
The money will be used to make major enhancements to 136 of the Council’s properties.
Measures include the installation of loft, external wall and cavity wall insulation, solar panels and low-energy lighting.
This will not only reduce emissions but also keep householders’ energy bills lower than they would otherwise be.
The works are due to start next month and are scheduled for completion in March next year with the overall cost of the project being £2.25 million.
The Council recently produced a strategy for ensuring all its homes - almost 5,000 in total - are carbon neutral by 2030.
It is estimated that the total cost of this ambitious target will be £198 million, but a decrease in prices due to technological advances is expected to reduce that figure.
Councillor Jacqui Taylor, Chair of the Housing and Inclusion Committee, said:
Our priority as a Council is our commitment to tackling the climate emergency and delivering a greener District for the benefit of all our residents.
I am delighted that we have received these funds from the Decarbonisation Fund on top of a £250,000 Green Homes grant that we recently obtained to help finance similar work at 50 other social rent properties.
We also recently built our first social houses equipped with eco-friendly air source heat pumps rather than gas boilers and our policy is to continue this work at all future developments.
We’ve calculated what the total cost will be to become carbon neutral and will press the Government for more much-needed funds to achieve this goal in the years ahead.
The Decarbonisation Fund is administered by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Photo of solar panels being fitted by Los Muertos Crew from Pexels
Councillor contact:
Councillor Jacqui Taylor, Chair of the Housing and Inclusion Committee, cllr.j.taylor@stalbans.gov.uk, 07971 906343.
Contact for the media:
John McJannet, Principal Communications Officer: 01727 819533, john.mcjannet@stalbans.gov.uk.