Oxfordshire County Council's climate team was successful in the second phase of applications to the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG2), the council announced on 22 March 2023. The county was awarded £6.417 million by the government1.
The £630m government-funded grant scheme provides energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon heating to low income households living in fuel poverty1. The HUG2 funding will deliver whole-house retrofit installations to at least 310 properties across Oxfordshire that are not heated by mains gas, instead heated for example by electricity, liquefied petroleum gas, coal or oil1.
The programme is available to residents who own their home or privately rent, do not use mains gas for heating, and have a combined household income of less than £31,000 or are on means-tested benefits. Homes should also have an energy performance certificate rating of D or below1. Retrofitting funding will prioritise insulation first, followed by sustainable heating, including air source heat pumps, and then consider renewable, free electricity generation via solar panels1.
Councillor Pete Sudbury, the council's Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, said:
"A quarter of carbon emissions in the county come from our homes. The least energy efficient homes not only tend to be more expensive to run but also have a greater carbon footprint as a result."
The council also funds the Better Housing Better Health service with the districts and city councils, which supports residents with energy efficiency advice, accessing grant funding and improving access to eligible benefits. Residents can call the advice line on 0800 107 00441.
Why it matters for households
For a home off the gas grid, the cost of heating is tied to whatever fuel is available locally, whether that is electricity, oil, LPG or coal, and to how much of that heat escapes through the building fabric. The funding is aimed at homes with an EPC rating of D or below, which the council describes as tending to be more expensive to run and carrying a greater carbon footprint1. The order of works set out in the announcement, insulation before heating and then solar generation, reflects the sequence in which a whole-house retrofit is normally planned, since the size of a replacement heating system depends on how much heat the property loses. For owner-occupiers and private renters without a mains gas connection, this is one of the routes through which the capital cost of that work is met rather than borne by the household. Households that do not qualify for HUG2 are directed to the earlier HUG1 scheme, which the council says runs until the end of May and targets poorly insulated homes for low income residents with an EPC rating of D or below1.
What happens next
Further information, including eligibility, will be added to Oxfordshire County Council's website nearer to the project start, in April 20231. An expression of interest form is available at oxfordshire.gov.uk/retrofit, and the retrofit team can be contacted at retrofit@oxfordshire.gov.uk1. The council has not reported a completion date for the 310 installations.
Sources1 cited
- Oxfordshire awarded £6.4m to help low-income households tackle energy inefficiency, news.oxfordshire.gov.uk