The Chancellor announced on Wednesday 8th July in his mini Budget some interesting news for Wigan homeowners and Wigan landlords. He is going to give ‘The Green Homes Grant’ of up to £5,000 to cover two-thirds of the costs of environmentally friendly upgrades to your Wigan property, with the homeowner covering the other third.
There are also enhanced grants of £10,000 for the poorest households where 100% of the cost will be met by the Government.
This is nothing new.
The coalition Government in 2013 announced The Green Deal. That deal was in theory to help fund many environmentally friendly improvements to save energy.
Yet by the time it was brought to an end two years later only 14,000 households had applied, costing the taxpayer £238m (or £17,000 per household).
That doesn’t sound good value to me.
Improving our homes does makes sense.
Research shows Brits have the draughtiest homes in Europe. A recent survey suggests UK homes “leak” heat up to three times more quickly than more energy-efficient homes on the continent.
The chancellor has allotted £2bn to the scheme, which pays for two thirds of the cost of the upgrade and stated that more than 650,000 homes would be upgraded. This could save those households a total of £195m a year in heating bills (or the equivalent of £300 a year per household), cutting greenhouse gases and saving jobs in the construction industry.
The grant can be applied for from September and is open to Wigan homeowners and private sector Wigan landlords. Applications must be made before March 2021 and the Treasury have stated about half of the fund would go to households with the lowest incomes (how low is still to be announced), with an enhanced grant of up to £10,000, saving them up to £600 per annum each on their heating bills.
The average Wigan home annually produces 3.898 tonnes of CO2, compared to the national average of 4.101 tonnes
Government statistics state that this could be reduced to 2.145 tonnes for Wigan homes if suitable work (as per the Green Homes Grant) was carried out.
Why is this important ?
Well UK householders spend £34.735bn a year on their electric and gas bills.
Wigan householders spend £644.93 per year on
heating their homes (compared to the national average of £669.34 per year)
If Wigan householders carried out the energy improvements that ‘The Green Homes Grant’ suggests their energy bills for heating alone would reduce to £476.20 per year.
Therefore, it should be a WIN WIN situation for the environment, the economy and WIGAN household budgets.
More details on the scheme should be released by the Government in August.
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