The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has secured £34 million of government funding to retrofit around 3,000 social homes and privately owned homes occupied by low income households, the authority announced on 22 March 2023. Registered social housing providers across the region are matching the sum with a further £35 million, taking the total to about £70 million1.
The work covers better insulation, new doors and windows, and greener heating systems, and is targeted at homes with an energy performance rating of D or below1. The WMCA states that 1.2 million homes across the region will need to be retrofitted to meet its #WM2041 net zero ambition1.
Of the £34 million, £16 million comes from the Home Upgrade Grant to retrofit off gas grid homes in Birmingham, Dudley and Sandwell. That bid formed part of the Midlands Net Zero Hub consortium, which successfully bid for £140 million for the wider Midlands area. A further £18 million has come through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, with £35 million of match funding from 15 registered housing providers, among them Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, Orbit Housing Group, Midland Heart Housing Association, Bromford Housing Group and Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council1.
The government recognised the WMCA's record on net zero schemes in the Deeper Devolution Deal, announced the week before, by agreeing to hand the region control of a central pot of funding, bringing an end to competitive bidding for defined projects1. Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and WMCA chair, said:
"Whilst we've made a good start, the new Deeper Devolution Deal we've just negotiated with Government will enable us to go much further - opening up a more sustained flow of funding that will give us greater flexibility in planning and delivery as we build our supply chain, train up our retrofit workforce and establish the business models that will draw in the private finance that will help us really scale up our retrofit programme."
The WMCA set up the SMART Hub (Sustainable Market for Affordable Retrofit Technologies), which it says has already enabled it to attract more than £44 million of government funding and to support partners in other successful bids. Through the government-backed Pioneer Places programme, the authority says it is also examining ways of attracting private and public sector funding to decarbonise entire neighbourhoods1.
Why it matters for households
The funding is aimed at homes rated EPC D or below, the band where bills tend to be highest and where insulation, glazing and heating improvements make the largest difference to running costs. For owner occupiers on low incomes and social tenants in the region, the practical effect is that retrofit work may be delivered without a household contribution, though the announcement does not set out how individual homes will be selected or what residents will be asked to pay, if anything1.
The devolution element changes how money reaches the region rather than what households receive. Control of a central pot, instead of bidding project by project, gives the WMCA a steadier pipeline of work, which the authority links to building a local supply chain and retrofit workforce1. For a household, that bears on how quickly work can be scheduled and how many firms are available to carry it out. The £16 million Home Upgrade Grant strand is restricted to off gas grid homes in Birmingham, Dudley and Sandwell, so homes on the gas network in those areas fall outside that part of the programme1.
What happens next
The announcement does not give a timetable for when individual homes will be retrofitted or how households will be contacted. The Deeper Devolution Deal was announced in the week before 22 March 2023; the WMCA says it ends the need to competitively bid for defined projects, but the funding settlement that replaces it has not been reported1.