£12.4 million secured for energy efficiency upgrades to 600 Cumbrian homes cut to just £6 million to upgrade 200 homes.
In May 2023 Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council said they were delighted to announce that they had been successful in a bid for a minimum of £12.4 million in funding from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero for The Home Upgrade Grant Phase 2 (HUG2).
The bid win following a bid submitted by the former Eden District Council in February 2023 acting on behalf of a consortium of the former district councils across Cumbria to allow the councils to improve the energy efficiency of homes across Cumbria by helping residents to save money on their energy bills and reduce their carbon footprint.
Locally, the Government scheme was intended provide energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon heating to 600 low-income homes in Cumbria.
Through a range of measures available to eligible residents, including loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and clean heat measures such as Air Sourced Heat Pumps.
The funding was exclusively available to off-gas-grid homes with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of band D, E, F or G.
The project was set to run until April 2025.
A spokesperson speaking on behalf of both Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council when the scheme launch said, "I am delighted that our Housing teams, working in partnership with consortium leads, have managed to secure £12.4 million worth of funding through HUG2. This significant win will enable each of us to continue our ongoing efforts to make homes in the area more energy-efficient and to reduce carbon emissions.
By offering energy-saving measures to eligible residents, we’ll help our residents to make their homes more comfortable and reduce their carbon footprint.”
“This funding is a great achievement for the council and reinforces our Council Plan commitments to provide affordable, high specification energy efficient homes.’’
The funding was allocated as part of the previous Government’s UK Net Zero programme, which was seeking to phase out high-carbon heating for homes off the mains gas grid, whilst ensuring that such policies do not negatively impact fuel poor households.
Eligible residents were supposed to be contacted directly by the Council to arrange upgrades to their homes.
With just four months left to run of the HUG2 project Westmorland and Furness Council who inherited the role of accountable body and lead for the project for the former Eden District Council expect to only deliver retrofit measures to approximately 200 homes across Cumbria by the end of the project. Westmorland and Furness Council are also set to sign a new agreement with Government to cut the £12.4 million to just £6 million for Cumbria alongside the reduction in homes supported down from a planned 600 to just 200 across Cumbria.
A spokesperson for Westmorland and Furness, said: “Following a national reduction in the HUG2 funding by the previous Government, we have had to reduce our programme accordingly. We are still aiming to deliver retrofit measures to approximately 200 homes across Cumbria by the end of the programme on 31 March 2025.
“We are no longer accepting applications for HUG2, however, we have submitted an Expression of Interest for the Government’s recently launched Warm Homes Local Grant which goes live on 1 April 2025. If successful, we will open up for new applications early 2025.”
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