Leeds secures £16.8m boost to help residents access affordable green home upgrades

Hundreds more households will enjoy cheaper energy bills thanks to green upgrades after Leeds City Council secured £16.8m to progress its plans to deliver climate-friendly housing across the city.

The funding will enable the council to kick start the delivery of its new Net Zero Homes Plan, which sets out actions the local authority will take to install low carbon heating and tackle heat loss from Leeds’ residential buildings. Better insulating Leeds’ buildings to tackle heat loss—alongside other measures to improve energy efficiency—will help to reduce fuel poverty and carbon emissions simultaneously.

Councillor Helen Hayden, executive member for infrastructure and climate, said: “The Net Zero Homes plan is our blueprint to help end Leeds’ contribution to climate change by making our homes better: meaning they are more affordable, healthier, greener, and more comfortable to live in.”

Development of the new service will be accelerated thanks to a range of grants recently secured by the council including £100,000 from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to support customer engagement and product research as well as £50,000 from the MCS Charitable Foundation to create additional capacity within the council.

David Cowdrey, director of external affairs at MCS Charitable Foundation, said: “Leeds City Council is pioneering in its efforts to make old houses fit for the future on a mass scale. Cities like Leeds need long-term investment from the Government to help retrofit houses to be more energy-efficient, warmer, and cheaper to run, and that investment requires sustainable planning at council level.”

Hundreds of low-income households to benefit from £15.5m scheme offering subsidised home improvements to tackle fuel poverty. While the majority of privately owned and rented properties in the city could potentially benefit from the new one-stop-shop hub or similar services, thousands of homeowners in Leeds will still require additional support.

Leeds City Council has experience delivering energy efficiency schemes aimed at helping residents at risk of fuel poverty. Last year, more than 900 households living in some of Leeds’ oldest and coldest homes benefited from a £9.5m retrofit scheme.

As part of its Net Zero Homes Plan, the council will continue building the case for additional funding to support Leeds’ homeowners that are least able to afford money-saving green upgrades. The council has now secured up to £15.5m to deliver a new scheme to upgrade properties not connected to the gas grid, it announced today.

Around 750 mostly privately owned or rented households on low incomes are expected to benefit from measures to cut energy bills by 2025 as a result of the new funding. Eligible residents will be able to apply for free installations of insulation products, solar panels, or low carbon heating technologies. Landlords of eligible properties will also be able to apply for heavily subsidised installations of the same improvements.

Leeds City Council is the second largest local authority in the country and the largest housing provider in Leeds. The Net Zero Homes Plan recognises the vital importance of the council ensuring that it’s own 54,000 rented homes are also made fit for the future.

In 2021 the council committed to investing £100m in green improvements for existing council properties by the middle of this decade. It is on track to meet this target. Many of these projects have already been completed.

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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