£4.2m grant to improve energy efficiency

Residents living in 300 of our homes will benefit from energy efficiency improvement, thanks to a £4.2m grant.

The money, from Wave 2.1 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), will help us to expand our current ‘retrofit’ programme.

We’ll be more than matching the grant, increasing the total funds to almost £9m. With this money, we’ll be bringing 300 of our older homes up to an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of ‘C’, at a cost of around £30,000 a home.

This ‘retrofit’ work will help keep the homes warmer and reduce energy costs. Customers involved in the programme will be contacted directly by our Retrofit team.

Each home will be surveyed to identify what works will offer the most benefit. We expect that external insulation will be offered to the majority of the 300 homes, though new windows and doors, and both loft and internal wall insulation may also be included in the upgrades. Ventilation will be an essential consideration in all works, to reduce the possibility of damp and mould.

Chris Pryke-Hendy, Head of Sustainability at NCHA, is delighted with the announcement: “This fantastic grant will enable us to offer great improvements to many of our residents’ homes, helping them stay warmer in the winter months, ease energy costs and reduce carbon emissions. The work aligns with NCHA’s five year environmental sustainability pledge to bring all our homes to at least EPC C standard by 2028. We can’t wait to get started.”

News of the Wave 2.1 funding is additional to phase one of our retrofit programme. Work on this initial phase has already begun, and will see improvements to over 80 homes in north Nottinghamshire, part funded by the SHDF Wave 1 grant of £934,000.

Grants in both Wave 1 and 2.1, from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, have been awarded to us as a member of the Midlands Net Zero Hub. The hub, a collective of 14 housing associations and 10 local authorities, has collectively been awarded £47m in Wave 2.1 funding, to improve the energy efficiency of homes across the region.