The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is set to receive an additional £3.6 million to improve the energy performance of low-income households, tackling fuel poverty and reducing carbon emissions.
The money is in addition to £11.3m received by the city region last year, after the North West Energy Hub, hosted at the Combined Authority, secured £52 million in government funding to fit energy efficiency measures to 7000 homes across the North West.
This additional funding will enable measures such as solar panels, improved insulation, double glazing and air-source heat pumps to be fitted to an additional 319 homes in Liverpool City Region.
This £3.625m for the Liverpool City Region will take the total investment in measures to tackle fuel poverty and reduce emissions to £43.4m, which will mean energy efficiency measures can be fitted to the properties of 3929 low-income households.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:
“At a time when more and more people are at risk of fuel poverty because of rising prices and widespread supply issues, we are doing everything we can to help people across our region heat their homes as cheaply and efficiently as possible without heating the planet too.
“This latest batch of funding means that we have invested nearly £45m to help put money in the pockets of 4000 of our most vulnerable and disadvantaged households by improving the energy efficiency of their homes and cutting their fuel bills.
“This is only a down payment on our ambitions, though. We want all our housing to be brought up to a decent standard. If the government are serious about reaching their own net zero targets, they need to work with us to secure the investment we need to help make that happen.”
Councillor Graham Morgan, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Portfolio Holder for Housing and Spatial Planning, said:
“Along with our local authorities we are working very hard to retrofit energy saving measures to as many houses as possible, to save people money, tackle fuel poverty and to help our journey to becoming net zero by 2040.
“More than 60% of the 720,000 homes in the city region are at EPC band D and below and are wasteful and expensive to keep warm. We are doing everything we can but we need government to support us so that we can help more people more quickly.”
Councillor David Baines, Portfolio Holder for Climate Emergency and Renewable Energy, said:
“We know that if we are to successfully reach our target of becoming net zero carbon by 2040, we need to half our energy use in the city region. The situation in our homes is even more challenging, as we will have to cut energy use by 60%. That’s why retrofitting our homes with energy efficient measures is so important and why it is highlighted in our recently published Pathway to Net Zero document. This will be a challenge but with support from government we already have the technology to do this, while creating good quality jobs in the process.”
Councillor Gill Wood, Deputy Portfolio Holder for Climate Emergency and Renewable Energy, said:
“Securing this £3.6m additional funding is very good news for the City Region. Every home we can fit energy efficiency measures to takes us one step forward to achieving our goal of becoming net zero carbon by 2040 or sooner. Every home we improve with this funding makes another household less vulnerable to fuel poverty, at no cost to themselves. With the right funding from government we could roll these programmes out across the whole city region and make a massive difference to fuel poverty while cutting emissions at the same time.”