A LEICESTER scheme aimed at tackling fuel poverty with grants to help people install energy efficient and renewable technologies in their homes has received a major cash boost.
Leicester City Council has successfully bid for a further £2.125 million from the Government’s Green Homes Grant scheme to help people with the cost of making their homes warmer and their energy bills cheaper, while helping cut carbon emissions.
This follows on from the city council’s previous successful bids for over £4.25million of Green Homes Grant funding announced last November. Since then, over 1,100 households in Leicester have made a bid for support through the local scheme.
This latest phase of the scheme is open to owner occupiers, and private rented landlord properties. It will also support improvements to Leicester City Council’s own housing stock. The primary measure on offer in this phase of the scheme is solid wall insulation. When installed, this can help people save an estimated £200 per year on energy bills and reduce household carbon emissions by around 900kg per annum.
Funding for other improvement works such as loft and cavity wall insulation, solar panels, air source heat pumps and smart heating controls are still available through the previous phases of the scheme for eligible residents.
Deputy city mayor Cllr Adam Clarke, who leads on environment and transportation, said: “This is another important boost for our local efforts to encourage and support people to cut the carbon and financial cost of heating their homes.
“Installing energy efficient home improvements – such as solid wall insulation – is a good way to reduce household energy bills and carbon emissions. We know these measures can be expensive and it’s really important that people can get help to meet the costs through schemes like the local Green Homes Grants.
“Our energy team has done a fantastic job in securing over £6million of grant funding to help residents heat their homes more efficiently, cut their energy bills and support the city in doing its bit to tackle the climate emergency.”
To be eligible for a Green Homes Grant, homes must currently have a low energy performance. This can be easily determined on application.
If eligible, a home survey will be offered to best determine what improvements are most suitable. Any work carried out will be undertaken by a Trustmark registered contractor.
The city council is continuing to work with E.ON to deliver the scheme, but people do not need to be an existing E.ON or E.ON Next customer to benefit from the funding.
Nigel Dewbery, Director of Residential Solutions at E.ON UK, said: “We’re really pleased to be continuing to work with Leicester City Council to offer eligible residents the opportunity to install a range of energy efficiency measures on their properties.
“By working with the city council to deliver free energy saving improvements through the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery scheme we’re further demonstrating our commitment to helping improve the energy efficiency of housing across the UK and reducing individual homeowners’ impact on the environment, all helping to support the UK’s net-zero targets.
“We’re already seen a huge success with the uptake of the previous round of funding and we encourage residents to contact us to find out how they can benefit.”
To find out more contact the Green Homes Grant team at E.ON on 0333 202 4820 (Monday to Friday 9am-5.00pm) or email Greenhomesgrant@eonenergy.com with your contact number.
To find out more about a range of energy efficiency grants on offer for local homes and businesses through Leicester City Council, visit www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council/policies-plans-and-strategies/energy-efficiency
Supporting householders to install low carbon, energy efficient measures is just one of the actions resulting from the first Leicester Climate Emergency Strategy. The strategy sets out an ambitious vision for how the city needs to change to move towards becoming carbon-neutral and adapting to the effects of global heating by 2030, or sooner.