Families, business and industry to get energy efficiency support

The Government has announced that around a million homes will be made warmer and hundreds of business supported, as £6bn is allocated to cut energy use and bills.

The funding was announced at the Autumn Statement and has been allocated today to schemes.

Around a million families and hundreds of businesses will be helped to cut their energy use, backed by £6bn, as part of the new approach to net zero that will save on costs for the public.  

Families will benefit from a range of options to heat their home for less and reduce emissions through energy efficiency measures, such as insulation for around 500,000 homes and hundreds of thousands more grants for heat pumps. 

The Prime Minister’s 50 per cent increase in the heat pump grant to £7,500 has already led to a 57 per cent increase in applications. After the success of this scheme, an additional £1.5bn of funding will ensure more homes and businesses can install heat pumps, helping people transition easily to the modern, clean heating systems needed to become a net zero nation. 

The £6bn announced at Autumn Statement 2022 and allocated today will support tens of thousands of green jobs while helping homes, hospitals, schools and businesses to save money.??    

These include the following schemes, which are subject to business case approval and value for money assessments: 

• The Boiler Upgrade Scheme, allocated a further £1.5bn, to support families in England and Wales move away from gas to energy efficient, low-carbon heat pumps. 
• A new £400m energy efficiency grant, launching in 2025, for households in England to make changes such as bigger radiators or better insulation. 
• A new local authority retrofit scheme, allocated £500m to support up to 60,000 low-income and cold homes, including those off the gas grid, with measures such as insulation.  
• The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, allocated £1.25bn to support up to 140,000 social homes to be insulated or retrofitted, improving energy performance and lowering bills. 
• The Green Heat Network Fund, allocated £485m to help up to 60,000 homes and buildings access affordable, low carbon heating through new heat networks, reducing our use of fossil fuels and providing more reliable heating. 
• The Heat Network Efficiency Scheme, allocated £45m to improve around 100 existing heat networks, in a move that will reduce bills and improve reliability.  
• The Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, allocated £225m, will continue to help businesses transition to a low-carbon future. 

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Rural Services Network Chief Executive Kerry Booth says: "In order for us to reach net zero, and also reduce our spend on heating, a fabric first approach is vital.  The fuel poverty gap in rural areas is double that of the national average.  This announcement is the Government reiterating some of the commitments in the Autumn Statement and some of these funds announced by the government will not be available until 2025. The grant amount available for installing a heat pump at £7500 is welcome, however for many rural homes, the cost of making their home heat pump ready may be prohibitive for rural residents.  Whilst there are grants available for some categories such as low income families, these will not support everyone and so some rural residents may be left behind in this net zero journey."