Housing association secures £500k to improve energy efficiency of homes
Plus Dane Housing has secured more than £500,000 of funding to continue its work making its homes warmer and more efficient and to meet the sector’s net zero targets.
The Liverpool-based housing association is currently working on its biggest retrofit project to date, involving more than 400 homes, which has been made possible thanks to funding from Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority via the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
Working in partnership with Mayor Rotheram and the combined authority, Plus Dane has invested almost £10m in its programme over the past two years.
It has now been given an additional £529,000 from the combined authority to make use of more of the region’s available funding, that will enable work on a further 69 properties in the Liverpool 8 area.
The extra amount follows on from an initial £4.5m last summer, secured by Mayor Rotheram from the second wave of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) programme allocated to the Liverpool City Region.
Plus Dane co-funded the works with more than £5m, aiming to improve the energy performance of homes by bringing them up to an EPC C rating or above. The works are being undertaken by Plus Dane’s contracting partner Next Energy.
Improvements vary depending on the requirements of each home, and include loft insulation, solar panels, underfloor insulation, smart controls, cavity wall insulation, low energy lights, internal wall insulation, triple glazed windows, and external wall insulation.
Claire Dixon, deputy chief executive at Plus Dane, said: “We plan to invest £62m into our existing homes over the next three years, including projects like this to make them warmer and more affordable to live in.
“Customers are already seeing the benefits of the work done so far. We are grateful to the combined authority for their support and to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.”
