The government recently announced an energy price cap freeze. However, charity National Energy Action expects that even so, “6.7 million UK households could be…unable to afford to heat their homes to the temperature needed to keep warm and healthy.”

It is clear that more needs to be done to protect people from fuel poverty. Improving the energy efficiency of homes is crucial to tackling this. More than 80% of homes will still be in use by 2050 and 71% are EPC E, F & G.

The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) offers social landlords the chance to upgrade housing stock currently below Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C standard. There is up to £800 million of funding available to help deliver warm, energy efficient homes and reduce carbon emissions at the same time. Wave 2 of SHDF is now open for applications, with funding being made available to registered providers of social housing, including private and local authority providers.

Eliminating the carbon emissions from your existing housing stock will leave it more comfortable for tenants, and cost-effective to run.

Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) are the most efficient and effective way to decarbonise heating, the technology delivers heat with the lowest carbon emissions, lowest running costs and lowest lifecycle cost. GSHPs are eligible under SHDF and the funding could cover up to 88% of installation costs.

Kensa is urging local authorities and housing providers to start preparing their Wave 2 applications now to increase their chances of securing funding to decarbonise their stock and tackle fuel poverty.