Agenda item

The Climate Change Manager presented a report on the subject of Warm Homes Local Grants (WHLG) funding and resources.

The Executive Committee was informed that the WHLG funding was being provided by the Government to assist householders in improving the energy efficiency of their properties.  Owner occupiers on lower incomes would be eligible to apply for this funding, as it was designed to help alleviate fuel poverty.  Properties would need to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D – G in order to be eligible for funding.  The Council had chosen to focus allocation of this funding to owner occupiers living in the Woodrow area, where there were higher levels of deprivation than in some other parts of the Borough.  Whilst Council House properties would not be eligible to receive funding through this scheme, there was a separate Warm Homes Social Housing (WHSH) fund that Council tenants could benefit from.

The Council had been allocated grant funding to spent on WHLG for a three-year period, starting in 2025/26.  The funding could be spent on a range of measures including the installation of insulation and of solar panels.  Officers were estimating that there would be an average spend of £15,000 per property using this funding.  Act on Energy would work with the Council on the project and would provide support to owner occupiers during the process. 

Following the presentation of the report, Members discussed a number of points in detail:

·             The monitoring update reports that the Council would be required to provide on a monthly basis to the Midlands Net Zero Hub (MNZH) regarding local progress with the project and the potential for this data to be shared with Members.

·             The funding that had been allocated to the WHLG for the three financial years starting in 2025/26 and the reasons why the allocation for the first year was lower than subsequent years.  Officers suggested that this could be due to previous experiences with similar grant funding initiatives, which had tended to report increases in demand for funding in later years of a project.

·             The number of properties that the Council was expecting to assist using the WHLG grant funding in each year and the extent to which there would be the flexibility to provide support to more properties than anticipated.  Officers clarified that this was based on assumptions that maximum levels of expenditure would be required for each property, however, should this not be the case then more eligible properties could potentially receive support.

·             The benefits arising from the potential to co-commission suppliers of the works funded by the WHLG and the WHSH.  The Committee was informed that a joint procurement exercise could be undertaken and it was anticipated that this would result in efficiency savings.

·             The need for thorough planning and community engagement to be undertaken in order to enable eligible households to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the WHLG funding.  It was noted that the Council would approach eligible owner occupiers directly.

·             The fact that through this scheme, improvements would be made to the energy efficiency of eligible properties at no financial cost to the owner occupiers.

·             The benefits to addressing health inequalities in the Borough arising from improving the energy efficiency of properties.

·             The lack of certainty about whether further WHLG funding would be made available to local authorities at the end of the three-year period.  Members expressed their hopes that this or similar funding would be made available by the Government again in the future.

RECOMMENDED that

1)          authority be delegated to the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer to reflect in the Capital Programme the grant funding in 2025/26 and to include the 2026/27 and 2027/28 funding in the Medium-Term Financial Plan for the Warm Homes Local Grant (WHLG) (as shown below).

RESOLVED that

2)          authority be delegated to the Assistant Director of Community and Housing Services following consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Climate Change and Biodiversity to administer the funding received in the WHLG in line with the grant conditions and any alterations to the delivery programme.