Plans for major housing retrofit project in Nottingham

Nottingham City Council is leading a regional bid for up to £140m of government funding to tackle fuel poverty.

The Council is applying for a grant from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) through its Sustainable Warmth Competition, which allows local authorities to apply for funding to install energy saving upgrades and low heating in low-income households.

Nottingham is making the bid on behalf of the Midlands region, in its role as the accountable body for the Midlands Energy Hub, which supports each of the nine Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the region.

The aim of the project is to cut energy bills in the coldest and most vulnerable homes, targeting residents on the lowest incomes, alongside driving retrofitting measures to improve building fabric, decarbonise heating systems and see more renewable energy in homes across Nottingham and the wider region.

Cllr Sally Longford, portfolio holder for change, carbon-reduction and sustainability, and deputy leader of Nottingham City Council, said: ‘I’m proud that we have a well-deserved national reputation for our climate-change agenda and regionally we are seen as leaders in the field. Applying for this funding will allow us to continue our forward-thinking programme of low carbon retrofit work across the city.

‘Through the Midlands Energy Hub, we have identified an exciting opportunity for us to bid in partnership with other local authorities across the region, which, if successful, will have a significant impact on improving the lives of the most vulnerable in our communities.

‘This supports our ambitious carbon-neutral and fuel-poverty plans at the same time as helping partner councils to deliver their own retrofitting programmes at a pace and scale needed to deliver local and national net-zero targets.’

The Midlands Energy Hub is one of five set up and funded by BEIS, sitting within the Carbon Reduction Energy and Sustainability Division.

It has already received more than £59m of government funding as part of Phase 2 of its Local Authority Delivery scheme, which runs until December this year.

In related news, a Leicester Council scheme to help homes cut energy costs has won funding.

Photo by Julian Hochgesang