People living in more than 100 council-owned houses in Northampton will benefit from a £1.25 million government grant towards the cost of making their homes more energy efficient. 

NFA members Northamptonshire Partnership Homes and their parent local authority West Northamptonshire Council have secured an award in Wave 2 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF). It will be used to retrofit external wall insulation, loft insulation, better ventilation and new windows and doors to more of the older solid wall council homes in the town over the next two years.

All NFA members who bid for a share of Wave 2, either with their parent council or as part of a regional consortium, were successful. In addition to NPH, they are Colchester Borough Homes, Cheltenham Borough Homes, Cornwall Housing, Derby Homes, Homes in Sedgemoor, Lewisham Homes, Six Town Housing, Solihull Community Housing, South Essex Homes, St Leger Homes of Doncaster and Sutton Housing Partnership. Others have benefited from the Home Upgrade Grant programme.

In Northampton, the homes being tackled under the ALMO’s Whole House Retrofit Project were typically built in the 1920s and 1930s. They are often more expensive to heat and energy inefficient and have an EPC rating in band D or worse. Every home upgraded will also be fitted with a smart device to monitor internal air quality, temperature and humidity as a preventative measure against future damp or condensation problems.

Since the SHDF scheme began in 2020, NPH has secured more than £10m from the fund, beginning with a dramatic race to meet the very short deadline for the first pilot grant. The story of that bid was told by NPH’s Sustainability Manager Paul Tucker in a blog for a NFA Viewpoint blog last year that explains the workings of the SHDF and the challenges that face retrofitting social landlords.

Winston Williams, NPH’s Director of Asset Management, said: “We are delighted to have been successful with this round of funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund … [which has put] over £10m of investment into estates with some of the oldest council homes in Northampton, supporting the local green economy in the process.”