Social housing tenants in Shotley peninsula villages could save as much as £400 a year on their energy bills, as part of upgrades to their homes backed by Babergh funding.

Secretary of State for Energy Security Claire Coutinho today (Monday 18 March) announced the award of more than £75 million from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to offer free upgrades to tenants' homes including insulation, double glazing and the installation of heat pumps. The scheme is already working to reach around 100,000 households.

Babergh, and neighbouring district council Mid-Suffolk, have been awarded £1.593million as part of the funding to help its social housing residents.

This funding will help some of the lowest income households by delivering warm and energy efficient homes, lifting people out of fuel poverty and improving the comfort and wellbeing of social housing tenants.

Almost half of all homes in England are now rated Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C or above, up from 14 per cent in 2010.  

Secretary of State for Energy Security Claire Coutinho said: "Our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund is helping families to keep their homes warm and their bills down. We want to support hard-working families to make changes, rather than burdening them with unnecessary costs.

"This funding today will help up to a further 8,800 households save around £400 a year on their energy bills."

Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance Lord Callanan said: "Already working to deliver free home upgrades to around 100,000 social homes, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund is helping low-income families have cheaper bills and a warmer home.

"We're now going even further to cut energy bills for more social tenants, all while supporting an additional 1,300 jobs in the UK's retrofit industry."

Open to applicants who had not received funding in the previous wave – which is also expected to save tenants around up to £400 on their energy bills – this funding will bring many new social housing landlords into the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund for the first time, helping to ensure the programme reaches as many social homes as possible.

The government is allocating around £20 billion over this Parliament and next to improve the energy efficiency and low carbon heating of homes and businesses, reducing reliance on fossil fuel heating and reducing household energy bills.

This includes the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which is helping households make the switch from fossil fuel heating systems to cleaner low carbon alternatives. 

Having increased the grant by 50% to £7,500 – making it one of the most generous schemes of its kind in Europe – applications are on a sustained surge, with the average monthly number of applications from November 2023 to January this year 39% higher than the monthly average before the uplift.

The government also recently announced that homeowners will have more choice in how they improve their home and will no longer have to install cavity wall or loft insulation to use the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.

Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation Kate Henderson said: "Housing associations play a crucial role in helping the country to meet its net zero targets and are already leading the way on energy efficiency, but funding is essential for maintaining this work. 

"The sector is committed to providing energy efficient and comfortable homes for their residents that are affordable to heat, and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund is key to enabling them to do so; I've seen first-hand the difference it has made. 

"The funding announced today will give housing associations the certainty and confidence they need to plan and deliver more retrofit projects, tackle fuel poverty, and improve their residents' homes."