Major investment for green housing in Liverpool announced

Nearly £45m is set to be invested in green housing in the Liverpool City Region to tackle fuel poverty and reduce emissions.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is set to receive an additional £3.6m to improve the energy performance of low-income households.

This funding builds on the £11.3m received by the city region last year from government to fit energy efficiency measures and takes the total investment in measures to tackle fuel poverty and reduce emissions to £43.4m.

3929 low-income households are expected to have energy efficiency measures fitted to their properties through the total investment.

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: ‘At a time when more and more people are at risk of fuel poverty because of rising prices and widespread supply issues, we are doing everything we can to help people across our region heat their homes as cheaply and efficiently as possible without heating the planet too.

‘This latest batch of funding means that we have invested nearly £45m to help put money in the pockets of 4000 of our most vulnerable and disadvantaged households by improving the energy efficiency of their homes and cutting their fuel bills.

‘This is only a down payment on our ambitions, though. We want all our housing to be brought up to a decent standard. If the government are serious about reaching their own net zero targets, they need to work with us to secure the investment we need to help make that happen.’

Cllr Graham Morgan, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Portfolio Holder for Housing and Spatial Planning, added: ‘Along with our local authorities we are working very hard to retrofit energy saving measures to as many houses as possible, to save people money, tackle fuel poverty and to help our journey to becoming net zero by 2040.

‘More than 60% of the 720,000 homes in the city region are at EPC band D and below and are wasteful and expensive to keep warm.  We are doing everything we can but we need government to support us so that we can help more people more quickly.’

In related news, proposals for a net zero housing development were granted approval, as part of the £1.3bn Granton Waterfront regeneration project in north west Edinburgh.

Photo by Jean Carlo Emer