Law firm criticises government claim of new funding for social housing decarbonisation
A Government announcement of funds to decarbonise social housing has been condemned as “somewhat misleading’ by law firm Devonshires.
James Grinstead, a solicitor at the firm, said most of the £1.4bn to upgrade homes with energy efficiency measures had already been allocated and was not new money.
Energy Secretary Great Shapps said more than 115,000 homes across England would benefit from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) and Home Upgrade Grant, collectively worth £1.4bn.
There would be a further £1.1bn in match funding for social housing provided by local authorities, social landlords and charities and £409m through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to reduce carbon emissions from buildings such as schools and hospitals.
Mr Shapps said: “This is a huge investment that will help households save hundreds on energy bills and see them heat their homes for less, and stay warm for longer.”
“Not only this but the funding is also a huge boost for job creation and economic growth, opening up new and exciting opportunities across the UK’s ever-expanding green sector.”
But Mr Grinstead said: “Quite simply this is not ‘new’ funding” as it has already been invested in the sector through the first phases of the Home Upgrade Grant and the SHDF."
He said: “There appears to be no recognition of the fact that a significant portion of SHDF Wave 1 bidders had to return their grant funding due to not being able to deliver retrofit to the scale initially expected, or match the original funding provided.”
Saying that a further £1.1bn was available in match funding to raise the overall investment in social housing and public sector buildings to £2.5bn, therefore “is somewhat misleading”, he added.
Mr Grinstead said a Government claim that 20,000 jobs will be created in the construction and home retrofitting was “unfounded” since the funds included nothing for upskilling and training a workforce and “it will all be for nothing if there is no-one to actually deliver the work”.
There was though a welcome for the fund from parts of the social housing sector.
Tracy Harrison, chief executive of the Northern Housing Consortium said: “This latest wave of funding adds to the momentum already built around green home upgrades in the north.”
Carol Matthews, chief executive of the Riverside Group, which secured just under £12.7m from the SHDF said: “This funding will enable us to improve the energy efficiency of our homes and protect our residents from rising fuel bills and cost of living crisis.’
Helen Silman, Worthing Borough Council’s cabinet member for climate emergency, said: “The decarbonisation of heating is key to our goal of being a carbon neutral council by 2030, and a challenge we’ll continue to rise to as we look ahead to meeting our 2045 target of a carbon-neutral Worthing.”
Mark Smulian
