Council to spend £2.5m on making homes greener

The work will likely include adding wall insulation, the council says

A council is planning to spend nearly £2.5m to make 200 households more energy-efficient and sustainable over the next three years.

Herefordshire Council has been given £2,485,440 from the government's Warm Homes: Local Grant scheme, which means it will spend an average of about £12,400 on each property.

The local authority said that fuel poverty remained "a significant issue in Herefordshire", affecting nearly one in five households compared to nearly one in eight nationally.

It added that while there would be no initial outlay from householders, they would be responsible for maintaining installed systems.

Broken and inefficient heating systems will be replaced with renewable air source heat pump systems, and wall insulation, double glazing and insulated doors will be installed.

The work, which will be carried out by the council's current contractors, could also extend to loft and underfloor insulation as well as solar panels.

To qualify, households need a low Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D to G – which is thought to apply to more than half of all Herefordshire households. Park homes, which are not EPC-rated, are also covered.

Residents' combined gross annual income can be no more than £36,000.

The council said a combination of "low incomes, above-average numbers of older, hard-to-treat properties and poor coverage of the mains gas network" meant many people were living with less cost-effective and less sustainable heating systems.

The spending would also help it meet its goal of becoming a carbon-neutral council by 2030, it added.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.