The UK’s plan to bring down the cost of green heating
This week the government announced their new incentive to install more energy efficient, environmentally friendly, domestic heating systems. £450million has been allocated to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, with the aim to entice people to replace old boilers with low-carbon alternatives such as electric heat pumps. Currently, these systems are more expensive than boilers, so to bring down the costs to make them comparable with new boilers the government are offering £5,000 grants to homeowners that choose to make the switch.
The numbers work out to provide funding for 90,000 grants over the 3 years, so anyone that is interested in this fund will need to move quickly once applications open in April next year. The government have also stressed that the first few years of funding for this scheme is intended for those who are coming up to their boilers end of life. People with newer, more efficient boilers are not expected make the switch so soon.
This ties in to the overall £3.9billion funding for decarbonising heat and buildings up to 2025 and the further plans to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across the UK by 2050. The main focus at the moment is on the reduction of carbon emissions from heating buildings, which currently accounts for 75% of all buildings’ carbon emissions.
Other funds in this area that were recently announced are as follows:
- £1.425billion through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme
- £950million for the Home Upgrade Grant scheme
- £800million for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund
- £338million for the Heat Network Transformation Programme
Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme
You will recognise the largest allocation, the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), from our extensive coverage here at Munday + Cramer. The current round of funding is specifically focussed on transitioning to low-carbon heating. However, some of this fund will also be available for those who bundle this with other energy reducing measures across the building to facilitate a ‘whole building’ approach to decarbonisation.
PSDS is only available for the public sector (hence the name). Some examples of this are; the healthcare sector with NHS funding, the education sector with university funding and also funding for other government buildings such as police stations, amongst many more. Should you require any more information on PSDS, or if you need help planning works and applying for the scheme, get in touch to see how Munday + Cramer can help.
Home Upgrade Grant Scheme
The second highest allocation, at a little shy of £1billion, is the Home Upgrade Grant Scheme. This fund is available to local authorities to allocate to low-income families to help make their homes greener. This may be through reducing heat loss with better insulation, installing better windows and doors, heating controls, low carbon heating and more. This scheme has the added benefit of bringing down monthly household bills, making this a win-win for everyone involved.
Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund
£800million has been set aside for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. Social landlords and housing associations will have access to these funds to enable them to carry out works similar to the above. The government is making it a priority to help those most in need to upgrade their homes.
Heat Network Transformation Programme
A further £338million has been pledged to the Heat Network Transformation Programme. These funds are aimed at scaling up heat networks across the UK. Heat networks use excess energy to create steam, hot water or chilled liquids that are then distributed around the network as required. Currently infrastructure and production is limited, with a very small percentage of the UK connected to heat networks. Scaling this up would have a major positive impact on decarbonisation and heating costs should also decrease at the same time.
Other Building Decarbonisation Funding
The government also announced a further £135millon funding from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio will be spent in the area of the decarbonisation of heating systems. £60million of this is specifically based around improving heat pumps to make them smaller, easier to install and cheaper to run, whilst maintaining efficiency and effectiveness. This is through the newly announced Heat Pump Ready innovation programme. £65million of this funding is for the Flexible Innovation Program. This is to help projects that are aiming to combat the UK’s increasing energy demands with green alternatives.
Munday + Cramer’s Stance
Decarbonisation is incredibly important across the world for us to combat climate change. Here at Munday + Cramer we do our bit to help. No matter what project we work on, we ensure that our projects are as environmentally friendly as possible. Whether it is designing a building with energy efficiency in mind, ensuring building processes are carried out with minimal carbon emissions, or helping businesses secure funding to upgrade their buildings to become more eco-friendly. Munday + Cramer have always, and will always, have a strong stance against climate change.
Contact Us
For more information on how the team here at Munday + Cramer can help with decarbonisation, or if you would like to find out more about our building surveying services, operating in Essex, London, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk, then get in touch! Contact Munday + Cramer today on 01245 326 200.