Region to benefit from multimillion Green Deal funding

12.05.2014

The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership has been successful in securing almost £5m of Green Deal Communities funding to deliver energy efficiency schemes to households across the region.

The £4.943m has been awarded from the Department for Energy and Climate Change‘s £80m Green Deal Communities funding programme which was set up to support local authorities run street-by-street campaigns to accelerate uptake of the Green Deal across the country.

The funding will be distributed in a two phase approach across the region. In phase one, the funding will deliver subsidised wall insulation and other secondary measures such as glazing, loft insulation, heating improvements, using existing contracts to households in Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield. Each local authority will be targeting specific communities in the most need of support such as those households that are not able to benefit from more widely available energy saving measures such as cavity wall insulation.

In the second phase, 1,000 households across the entire City Region will be able to access £750 voucher on a first come basis, to be redeemed against the cost of Green Deal Assessments and the cost of works. This phase is likely to commence in autumn 2014.

The programme will also complete 16 show homes across the region to demonstrate a range of techniques available to make homes more energy efficient. This may include room in roof insulation, high performance windows, under-floor insulation, upgraded heating systems and renewable energy in off gas areas.

In addition to the capital investment into people’s homes, £50,000 has been secured to help develop the SME supply chain which aims to support at least 40 SMEs to become PAS2030 accredited, the technical standard to which Green Deal works are carried out.

This funding supports the LEP’s strategic priority of building a resource smart city region and creating a lean, resource efficient economy, underpinned by a 21st Century energy infrastructure.

Paul Hamer, Chair of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership’s Green Economy Panel welcomes the funding to the region:

“This funding provides a boost to our domestic energy saving and job creation ambitions and will help to kick start the new Leeds City Region wide Green Deal Scheme to be available from October.

“By creating new, energy-efficient show homes in each Local Authority area, we can showcase how households can save energy and reduce their bills, realising further benefits for the City Region.”