We’ve been successful in securing Government funding to improve the energy efficiency of our homes and keep them warmer for longer.

The latest Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant was announced last week by the Government, giving out £1.4bn to housing associations and local authorities to improve homes and make them more energy efficient. We partnered with the West Midlands Combined Authority and 14 other housing associations and charities for an £18m grant to upgrade hundreds of homes across our joint portfolios. Our share of the funding, worth around £3.5m will allow us to complete improvement works in 189 homes over the next couple of years.

Nick Wooldridge, head of home investment, said: “More than 87% of our homes already have an energy efficiency rating of C or above and we’re on course to have all of our homes at this level by 2028, two years ahead of the Government target of 2030. For a number of years we’ve had a programme of installing insulation measures into our homes, helping households heat their homes for less and potentially saving money on what they would have had to spend on their energy bills.

“We’re delighted to have received this additional funding, which we are matching with £3.5m of our own money, to help make some of our worst-performing homes more energy efficient. We’ll be taking a fabric-first approach to the work, concentrating on fitting insulation, windows and doors and then exploring options such as low carbon heating systems or Solar panels on roofs. We know that customers have understandably been concerned about rising energy bills over the past year, so anything we can do to help them reduce their energy usage by making homes warmer will be welcomed.”

Having already identified the homes to benefit from the work, which are located right across our operating area, we’ll shortly be carrying out surveys to identify exactly what works are needed in each property.