Government launches £3bn fund to upgrade nation’s buildings
Originally written by Aaron Morby and published here
Homes, schools and hospitals across England are set to be greener and cheaper to run thanks to a £3bn plan to upgrade the nation’s buildings.
Today the Government launches its funding schemes to help retrofit buildings, expected to support 120,000 construction jobs.
Around £1bn will be channelled into boosting the energy efficiency of public buildings, including schools and hospitals through a Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund.
This will help an array of public sector organisations in England, including central government departments, agencies, local authorities, schools and NHS Trusts, to install energy efficiency and low carbon heating measures, reducing energy bills and carbon emissions.
An extra £50m will fund social housing through a demonstrator project for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF).
This UK-wide demonstrator scheme will see grants supplied to upgrade the energy efficiency of over 2000 of the worst-performing social homes.
The flagship Green Homes Grant forms the major part of the wider energy upgrade plan.
Around £2bn will be available to help private home owners upgrade the energy performance of homes, using TrustMark-registered installers.
GREEN HOME GRANT
The Green Homes Grant scheme will see the government fund up to two-thirds of the cost of home improvements up to £5,000.
Homeowners with low-incomes, including those on certain benefits, are eligible for a grant covering up to 100% of the cost of works up to £10,000. The scheme will improve the energy efficiency of over 600,000 homes.
Grants will be offered to cover green home improvements ranging from insulation of walls, floors and roofs, to the installation of double or triple glazing when replacing single glazing, and low-carbon heating like heat pumps or solar thermal – measures that could help households save up to £600 a year on their energy bills.
It will cut people’s energy bills and carbon emissions, whilst also supporting over 100,000 jobs in green construction for local plumbers and builders.
There will also be new measures to ensure nearly 3 million privately rented homes are upgraded to modern energy efficiency standards by 2028.
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