A housing association in Yorkshire is investing £887,000 to improve the energy efficiency of 29 homes in the villages of Duggleby and Amotherby.
Yorkshire Housing says £385,000 of the total investment is coming from Wave 2 of the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), which provides funding to improve the energy performance of social housing properties.
The properties in North Yorkshire were prioritised for the upgrade work as they are older homes in a rural location that have poor insulation and inefficient heating systems like coal and oil, the housing provider said.
They have an energy performance rating of SAP Band D or E, which means they use more energy and have higher running costs than other homes, leaving the people living in them vulnerable to fuel poverty.
Steve Ellard, Yorkshire Housing’s director of assets and sustainability, said: “We want to make sure all our homes achieve an energy performance rating of SAP Band C or above by 2030. The changes we’re making will help to reduce the amount of energy our customers use, and make their homes warmer, healthier and more affordable.
“There’s no sign of the cost of living crisis abating any time soon, so there’s a real sense of urgency around making our homes as energy efficient as possible to reduce the risk of our customers falling into fuel poverty.
“We’re committed to doing our bit to tackle climate change. and the work we’re doing at Duggleby and Amotherby will also reduce the carbon footprint of these properties.”
The upgrades include the installation of air source heat pumps, solar panels, and improvements to insulation. Yorkshire Housing has appointed E.ON as its delivery partner, and work is expected to start in November 2023.
Yorkshire Housing says its work to improve the energy efficiency of its homes has “gathered momentum” in the last couple of years.
A £530,000 solar panel project in Huddersfield started earlier this month, and a £1.3m energy efficiency upgrade project in the village of Staxton, near Scarborough is nearing completion.
These projects follow the organisation’s first major energy efficiency upgrade project in 2022 in the Craven area of North Yorkshire. It has invested £250,000 in replacing solid fuel heating systems with low carbon alternatives in 30 homes, reducing residents’ energy consumption and cutting carbon emissions by around 30 tonnes a year.
Ellard added: “Our 16,500 homes across Yorkshire produce around 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year and we plan to get that number to zero by 2050. To help us do that we’re investing £30m over the next five years in an extensive programme of energy efficiency and heating system upgrades.”
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