£1.5bn to improve energy efficiency and slash bills

Up to £1.5 billion is being made available through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant schemes, allowing social housing providers and local authorities to submit bids for funding to upgrade the properties of around 130,000 low-income and social households.

The funding will see the installation of measures such as external wall and loft insulation, energy-efficient doors and windows, heat pumps and solar panels, with multiple measures often being installed in a single home to considerably improve the energy performance.

Local authorities and social housing providers will be able to submit bids for funding and will deliver upgrades from early next year until March 2025, building on more than 30,000 homes already being upgraded under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant schemes.

Over the next two years the government’s Energy Price Guarantee will see the typical annual household bill sit around £2,500, a saving of at least £1,000 a year based on current prices and energy usage. This is on top of existing government plans to give all households £400 off bills this winter. This direct and decisive action means households will receive significant protection from an 80 per cent rise in the energy price cap and won’t see average household bills increase to over £3,500 annually, with some reports predicting bills could have risen as high as £6,500 next year.

There was also no price cap in place for businesses, meaning British companies were also experiencing significant increases in energy costs — in some cases of more than 500 per cent — but thanks to government intervention through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, businesses, public and third-sector organisations will pay wholesale energy costs well below half of expected prices for this winter.

Social housing with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D or lower will be eligible to receive Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) upgrades, while the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) funding will help people who are most vulnerable to fuel poverty, living in privately-owned — both rented and owner-occupied — off gas-grid homes and on low incomes.

The cash boost forms part of £12 billion combined funding under the government’s “Help to Heat” schemes, which also include the Local Authority Delivery and Energy Company Obligation schemes, targeting support to lower income and more vulnerable households.

The HUG funding will see up to £700 million available for local authorities to install energy efficiency measures in around 30,000 properties. Estimates for average annual energy bill savings for low-income households in HUG are around £700 at current prices.

Up to £800 million SHDF wave 2 grant funding will see around 100,000 social homes receive energy efficiency upgrades, with estimated average energy bill reductions of around £400 a year at current prices. The grant funding provided by the government will have to be matched by those applying, doubling the investment being made under the SHDF scheme to around £1.6 billion.

The wave 2 funding builds on the £179 million funding announced through SHDF Wave 1 in February 2022, which is upgrading up to 20,000 social housing properties.

The Energy Price Guarantee will limit the amount consumers can be charged for each unit of gas and electricity they use in their home and will apply from 1 October, fixing the unit cost at the equivalent of a £2,500 annual bill for a typical household with average gas and electricity use.

This will save the average household £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. It comes in addition to the announced £400 energy bills discount for all households and together they will bring costs close to where the energy price cap stands today.

Taken together, the government is cutting energy bills by an expected £1,400 this year, and millions of the most vulnerable households will receive additional payments, taking their total savings this year to £2,200.

Meanwhile, the Energy Bill Relief Scheme will reduce wholesale gas and electricity prices for all UK businesses, charities and public sector bodies, such as schools and hospitals, meaning they will pay wholesale energy costs below half of expected prices for this winter. The next wave of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme will also soon open for new applications, with up to £635 million in funding to further support bill savings in the public sector.