In 2021, the government created the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) - with £160 million available - aimed at supporting housing associations to improve the energy performance of their homes.
We're making our homes fit for the future by lowering our carbon emissions (eg through better insulation).
Often these things work better in partnerships. So, that's what we've done. We worked alongside Guinness Housing Partnership, Plus Dane Housing and Cheshire East Council to bid for our portion of the government fund.
Together, we won an impressive £1.6 million. The Trust has access to £550,000 of the SHDF.
Some of our homes are much harder to make energy efficient - for example, they're older properties. With the SHDF funding, we're carrying out whole house retrofits - installing energy, efficient modern systems across entire homes - in 48 homes that would otherwise be incredibly difficult to insulate and improve. Changes will include:
- External wall insulation
- Cavity insulation
- Underfloor insulation
- Installing air source heat pumps
Mark Howden, our CEO, said that:
This is a great step towards fulfilling our strategic objectives. We want to develop a long term carbon reduction strategy that does not impact adversely on fuel poverty - simply because we think it's the right thing to do.