£70m of new funding to improve energy efficiency of thousands more homes

Thousands of households will see their energy bills and carbon emissions cut thanks to £34 million of government funding secured by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to treble the number of homes it is making more energy efficient

The government funding – matched by a further £35 million from registered social housing providers across the region - will see around 3,000 social homes and privately-owned homes by those on low incomes retrofitted with better insulation, new doors and windows, and greener heating systems.

The work will be targeted at homes with an energy performance rating of D or below, supporting residents with the cost-of-living pressures, to help tackle climate change and contribute to the region’s #WM2041 ambition to be net zero within the next 20 years.

The government has recognised the WMCA’s expertise in delivering net zero schemes in the Deeper Devolution Deal, announced last week, by agreeing to hand the region control of a central pot of funding, bringing an end to the need for the region to competitively bid for defined projects.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and WMCA chair, recently visited Cape Hill in Smethwick where homes are currently being retrofitted thanks to government funding previously secured by the WMCA.

He said: “Improving the energy efficiency of our existing housing stock is essential if we’re going to lower energy bills for local people and provide residents with warmer and better insulated homes.

“Whilst we’ve made a good start, the new Deeper Devolution Deal we’ve just negotiated with Government will enable us to go much further - opening up a more sustained flow of funding that will give us greater flexibility in planning and delivery as we build our supply chain, train up our retrofit workforce and establish the business models that will draw in the private finance that will help us really scale up our retrofit programme.

“Together we can harness the power of retrofit to tackle the climate emergency and lower bills for local people right across our region.”

Andy Street at Cape Hill Estate in Smethwick where work is already underway to retrofit social homes with better insulation, and new windows and doors.

The WMCA estimates that 1.2 million homes across the region will need to be retrofitted to achieve the #WM2041 target.

As part of its investment to deliver its net zero targets, the WMCA set up the ground-breaking SMART Hub initiative (Sustainable Market for Affordable Retrofit Technologies).

The hub has already enabled the WMCA to attract more than £44 million of Government funding and support partners in making other successful and significant bids. This collaboration and capacity building will attract further funding and is also providing advice in delivering the retrofit programmes on the ground.

As part of the government-backed Pioneer Places programme, the WMCA is also looking at ways of attracting more private and public sector funding to decarbonise entire neighbourhoods.

Notes to editors:

Of the £34 million of new funding secured by the WMCA, £16 million is from the Homes Upgrade Grant to retrofit off gas grid homes in Birmingham, Dudley and Sandwell, Dudley. The bid was part of the Midlands Net Zero Hub consortium that successfully bid for £140 million for the wider Midlands area.

A further £18 million has come through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund with match funding of £35 million from 15 registered housing providers: Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council; Community Housing Group; Orbit Housing Group; Midland Heart Housing Association; Solihull Community Housing; St Basils Housing Association; Nehemiah Housing Association; Bromford Housing Group; Witton Lodge CIC; Make it Sustainable; The Elizabeth Dowell's Almshouse Trust; St Johns Church; Balsall Heath Housing Cooperative; Cannock Chase District Council; and Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.