Energy Saving Programme

£83.8m of additional funding is available to help social landlords insulate hard to treat cavity walls that would not otherwise be filled under the Decent Homes programme, by April 2011.

Background

The Decent Homes programme has already made great improvements to the energy efficiency of social sector homes. However, cavity wall insulation is not a requirement under the Decent Homes standard and although many landlords are doing it there are still 1.2m social homes with cavity walls that could be insulated. Of these we expect existing plans to tackle 500,000. However, many of the more difficult homes remain to be tackled.

This programme is to fund works that are additional to current plans under Decent Homes or the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target. We want to see the energy efficiency of social homes improved for environmental and fuel poverty reasons.

Aims

To help social landlords insulate hard to treat cavity walls that would not otherwise be filled under the Decent Homes programme.

This programme aims to tackle130,000 homes, but will also enable 2,500 jobs to be supported or created, and £120 per year to be saved on bills for each house. In addition there will be up to 800kg CO2 per household saving each year.

This programme will be complementary to the Warm Front programme in the private sector. It will also help homes improve their Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) rating and help families out of fuel poverty. The programme also links to the government’s Heat and Energy Saving Strategy which will help formulate a successful strategy for national and local government to help people individually, and as a part of their community, to heat and power their homes and businesses.

The programme aims to deliver:

An increase in the number of social homes that have cavity wall insulation
An overall improvement in the SAP ratings
A reduction in carbon emissions

Capital funding

The total budget for this programme is £83.8m. This will be profiled £54.5m (2009/10) and £29.3m (2010/11). There will only be one bidding round. Bidders should clearly indicate which year they are bidding for.

Outputs

It is expected that the funding will deliver a total of 130,000 properties with hard to treat cavity wall insulation. Whilst the average cost/unit is around £650 we expect landlords to seek the best possible deal from providers.

Who can apply?

The funding is available to all social housing providers in England: Registered Providers of social housing (including former Registered Social Landlords); Arms Length Management Organisations; and local authorities who have retained their social housing stock.

The minimum size of a bid is 1,000 properties. For housing providers where stock does not meet this minimum requirement the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) will accept bids from a consortia of social housing providers. It should be made clear in the covering letter who is the lead organisation. Payments will be made through that organisation.

Not all bidders will necessarily get funding for their projects. This is a competitive bidding round. Bids will be assessed against criteria, with priority given to Category 3 insulation (as per the definition in the Scale of cavity wall fillability). If there is over-bidding the HCA may scale down bids, with outputs being reduced accordingly. If sufficient funds are available and where it is value for money to do so, the HCA may consider funding Category 2 cavity wall insulation as part of bids received.

How to bid

Bidders must complete the bidding template and submit with a covering letter, providing an initial statement of the scope of works to be funded by this grant, to:

Sheldon Ferguson
Homes and Communities Agency
110 Buckingham Palace Road
London, SW1W 9SA.

Social Housing Cavity Insulation Bidding Template – Word (47 KB)

SHESP questions and answers

Timetable

12 June - bids submitted to HCA
July – successful bidders will be announced

Criteria

Eligibility

Bidders must meet all four of the following criteria

Must be Category 3 Cavity Wall insulation, or more than 80% Category 3
Must be additional to works already planned
Must be planned and delivered within agreed timeframe, and before end of 2010/11
Minimum bids considered – 1,000 properties. HCA will consider bids from consortia.

Funding will not be made available for the retrofitting of external insulation rendering or cladding purposes. Funding is strictly limited to the cavity filling of walls.

Scale of cavity wall fillability and category definitions – PDF (32 KB)

Assessment

Bids will also be considered against the following criteria and weightings applied in their assessment

Must be Value for Money (based on average amount; with flex upward where justified on hard to treat grounds). Weighting 50%
Deliverability (priority will given to those bidders that are able to start early and deliver early. This should be backed up by: track record of delivering decent homes/ cavity wall insulation). Weighting 30%
Must complement wider strategy for a place, support policy priorities and contribute to delivery of wider outcomes. Bidders must provide no more than 150 words to support this element of their bid. (Fuel poverty; local employment etc) Weighting 20%

Monitoring

Bidders will be required to provide monitoring information as set out in the bidding template.

Making claims and reporting to us

Payment of funds will be on completion of work and in arrears. Claims will be submitted to HCA, and paid as cash grant at the end of the nearest quarter to completion. If the project is likely to run over the two year period a claim for works completed in the first year can be made at the end of 2009/10. HCA will require certification for the number of homes completed.

The payment periods for claims will be received no later than:

15 October 2009 (Quarter 2 2009/10, July - September)
15 January 2010 (Quarter 3 2009/10, October - December)
15 April 2010 (Quarter 4 2009/10, January - March)
15 July 2010 (Quarter 1 2010/11, April - June)

Last updated: 13 April 2010