Dunne welcomes £800k to decarbonise Shropshire social housing
Over £800,000 of funding to upgrade Shropshire’s social housing stock to become more energy efficient has been welcomed by South Shropshire MP, Philip Dunne.
Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing, which manages Shropshire Council-owned homes in Bridgnorth, Oswestry and Shrewsbury, will receive £812,000 from the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund provides grants to bring up to standard a significant amount of social housing stock currently below Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C.
The funding can provide free upgrades to tenants’ homes including insulation, double glazing and the installation of heat pumps. The improvements could help tenants save as much as £400 a year on their energy bills.
Up to 8,800 social homes will benefit from free upgrades to make them more energy efficient and cheaper to run as part of the latest £80m top up funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. The funding will also support 1,300 jobs in the UK’s retrofit industry.
This builds on the funding allocated in Wave 2.1, which provided £778 million in March 2023 to deliver energy performance improvements to around 90,000 social homes.
Almost half of all homes in England are now rated Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C or above, up from 14% in 2010.
Mr Dunne said:
“Upgrading our social housing stock brings multiple benefits – from cheaper bills for tenants and warmer homes, to fewer emissions and less wasted heat. So I am very pleased the government has given STAR Housing £812,000 to improve their housing stock in Shropshire, which will help bring properties up to EPC C ratings.
"Given the built environment is responsible for 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, it is important we act now to improve energy efficiency, and targeting grant support towards social housing will also help the most vulnerable with their bills.”
