£3.8m pledged for energy efficient council homes

Work to make council homes warmer and bring down energy bills for tenants across Babergh and Mid Suffolk has received close to a £1.6m boost in government funding.

The money is to be added to the £2.25 million already committed by the councils to install energy saving measures in social housing, taking the total investment pledged for retrofitting and decarbonising to £3.85m across both districts.

Secretary of State for Energy Security Claire Coutinho announced that Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils would be receiving £1,593,000 as part of the latest round of awards from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

The funding is to help lower income households by delivering warm and energy efficient homes and lifting tenants out of fuel poverty by saving money on their energy bills.

Babergh District Council cabinet member for Housing Jessie Carter said: “This additional funding provides a welcome boost to our work to improve our council housing stock, and – more importantly – the lives of our tenants by making their homes warmer and more energy efficient. It also helps our ambitious targets to reduce Babergh’s carbon footprint and help to tackle climate change.”

And Richard Winch, cabinet member for Housing and Property in Mid Suffolk, added: “Together with the £1.6m we have previously committed to accelerate repairs and improvements to council homes across our districts, this funding helps us further improve standards for our tenants, by helping us to make real progress in retrofitting and decarbonising our social housing.”

“Together with our Cosy Homes initiative which supports energy efficiency in the private sector, we are committed to making a practical difference to climate change in our district, as well as to the lives of our tenants.”

Work is now underway to target council properties with the lowest EPC (energy performance certificate) ratings, with improvements to be carried out over the next two years.

Meanwhile, Warm Homes Suffolk offers grants for energy efficiency measures to private homeowners and landlords whose gross income is under £36,000.

For those in Mid Suffolk, there is also the Cosy Homes initiative tailored for households with an income of less than £60,000 and less than £16,000 in savings.