News

Winners of renewable heating scheme announced

44 social housing projects have today been awarded a share of £3.2million by DECC to get renewable heating into the homes of over a thousand  social housing tenants across Great Britain.

The Heating and Hotwater Industry Council (HHIC) has welcomed Kevin Lowe as the new technical manager to drive positive change in the successful implementation of heat pump technology.

Registered providers for social housing such as local authorities and social housing associations were able to bid for up to the Sterling equivalent of €200,000 (which currently amounts to around £156,000) under the third phase of the government’s Renewable Heat Premium Payment  social landlord competition (RHPP) launched in August this year.  

Successful bidders will be able to use this funding to install kit such as biomass boilers, solar hot water panels and heat pumps, helping make tenants’ homes warmer, cosier and much more energy efficient.  It is anticipated that over one thousand social housing tenants will benefit under this scheme.

Climate change minister Greg Barker said: “We need to move away from costly fossil fuel heating to more sustainable low carbon alternatives, not only to cut carbon but to help householders save money on bills too. 

“That’s why we are channelling investment into renewable heating kit like heat pumps and solar thermal panels. 

“It’s great to see so many social landlords getting on board and changing the way they heat their tenants’ homes and I wish them every success with their projects.”

DECC announced winners from the first round of this year’s social landlord competition (phase 2)   in July.  This latest round of winners (phase 3) brings the total number of successful social landlord projects to 132 this year, sharing £9.4million of funding between them.