44 social housing projects have today been awarded a share of £3.2million to get renewable heating into the homes of over a thousand social housing tenants across Great Britain.
Registered providers for social housing such as local authorities and social housing associations were able to bid for up to the Sterling equivalent of 200,000 Euros (which currently amounts to around £156,000) under the third phase of the Government’s Renewable Heat Premium Payment social landlord competition (RHPP) launched in August this year.
Successful bidders will be able to use this funding to install kit such as biomass boilers, solar hot water panels and heat pumps, helping make tenants’ homes warmer, cosier and much more energy efficient. It is anticipated that over one thousand social housing tenants will benefit under this scheme.
Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said:
“We need to move away from costly fossil fuel heating to more sustainable low carbon alternatives, not only to cut carbon but to help householders save money on bills too.
“That’s why we are channelling investment into renewable heating kit like heat pumps and solar thermal panels.
“It’s great to see so many social landlords getting on board and changing the way they heat their tenants’ homes and I wish them every success with their projects.”
Andy Deacon, Director of Delivery at the Energy Saving Trust, said,
“The renewable heating scheme is providing social housing providers with much needed financial support to install renewable heating in homes across the UK. The winners of the renewable heating scheme are really deserving and will ensure that thousands of homes are more energy efficient and warmer this winter. Energy Saving Trust wishes the winners every success in the future.”
The scheme is managed by the Energy Saving Trust (EST) and successful projects were judged by the EST and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on a number of criteria including value for money, type of fuel being replaced, energy savings secured and track record on delivering similar initiatives.
Winners come from all over Great Britain and the heating projects need to be up and running by the end of March 2013.
DECC announced winners from the first round of this year’s social landlord competition (phase 2) in July. This latest round of winners (phase 3) brings the total number of successful social landlord projects to 132 this year, sharing £9.4million of funding between them.
PHASE 3: SOCIAL LANDLORDS COMPETITION
The competitive nature of the bids submitted during the Phase 2 Social Landlord competition generated an underspend, which we used to launch two further competitions, each with a funding pot of approximately £2.5m – the Phase 2 top-up competition and the Phase 3 competition.
The Social Landlords (Phase 3) competition ran from 8 August – 9 October 2012. Improvements to the competition’s design were made in line with what landlords told us, including lengthening the application window to nine weeks and relaxing the requirement to provide energy bill information until the delivery phase. A reasonable level of consultancy fees was allowable to help support the application process for busy landlords.
WINNERS UNDER THE PHASE 3 COMPETITION
- Two Castles Housing Association
- Places for People
- Moat Homes
- Spectrum Housing
- South Tyneside Homes
- Gloucester City Council
- Broadland Housing Association Ltd
- Southern Housing Group (Bid 1: ASHP)
- Southern Housing Group (Bid 2: ST)
- Freebridge Community Housing
- Lewes District Council
- Viridian Housing
- Hyde Housing Association
- Salvation Army Housing Association
- Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust
- Wealden District Council
- A1 Housing Bassetlaw Ltd
- Winchester City Council
- Hexagon Housing Association
- Northampton Borough Council
- South Cambridgeshire District Council
- East Lothian Council
- Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
- Aspire Housing
- New Charter Housing Trust Ltd
- Clackmannanshire Council
- Ascham Homes London Borough of Waltham Forest
- Boston Mayflower
- Yarlington Housing Group (Bid 1 GSHP)
- Castlehill Housing Association
- Family Mosiac Home Ownership Ltd
- Waverley Borough Council
- City West Homes (on behalf of Westminster City Council)
- Dumfries & Galloway Housing Partnership
- Devon & Cornwall Housing Ltd
- Yarlington Housing Group (Bid 1 ASHP)
- Golden Gates Housing Trust
- A2 Dominion Housing Group Ltd
- Guinness Northern Counties (Bid 1)
- East Boro Housing Trust
- Uttlesford District Council
- Greenfields Community Housing
- Guinness Northern Counties (Bid 2)
- Wokingham Borough Council
Taking the results of all three social landlords competitions funded under RHPP 2 together (Phase 2, Phase 2 top-up and Phase 3) 132 social landlord projects will be funded to a total of £9.4m. This is expected to result in nearly 5,000 renewable heating installations being installed into social tenants’ homes this year.