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Homes grants available
Grant
funding has been made available for householders in the borough who
are in older, poorly insulated homes.
Scarborough Borough Council and the
Yorkshire Energy Partnership (YEP) have announced that a 100 per
cent grant is available for free external wall insulation for
residents in the borough who are off mains gas, have solid walls
and are in receipt of income related benefits.
Even people who do not meet these criteria
may still qualify for some grant aid towards solid wall insulation.
The grant is available to residents - private homeowners, private
tenant or landlords - living in rural and urban areas in the
borough. A free survey would be arranged to assess the
applicability of funding to insulate the property.
Cllr Dilys Cluer, chairman of the council’s
Sustainability Working Group, is encouraging residents to take
advantage of the offer. She said: “It is excellent news this grant
offer is on the table and I would urge anyone who thinks they
should be eligible for all or some of this grant to apply, as they
have absolutely nothing to lose by doing so.
“I know from personal experience that the
addition of external wall insulation makes a huge difference to
both comfort and energy bills.”
Dr James Bridges, Sustainability Officer
for Scarborough Borough Council, added: “While there is a clear
need to insulate solid wall homes to help to reduce fuel bills,
fuel poverty and carbon emissions, it is always a challenge to do
so, not least because it can be quite expensive. This grant
availability really is good news’.”
Housing stock of solid wall construction -
usually homes built pre-1920s, without a cavity - suffer from poor
energy efficiency as they do not contain heat compared to more
modern buildings that are designed with higher energy efficiency
specifications in mind. The cost of heating solid wall homes is
relatively very expensive and can lead to fuel poverty.
Funded by British Gas, the grant on offer
will help tackle fuel poverty by helping to reduce heat loss by
about 45 per cent and saving residents up to £640 a year on heating
bills.
Households are considered by Government to
be in “fuel poverty” if they have to spend more than 10 per cent of
their household income on fuel to keep their home in a
“satisfactory” condition (21 degrees Celsius in the living room and
18 degrees Celsius in other rooms). Factors that can determine if a
household is in fuel poverty include the cost of energy; the energy
efficiency of the property; and household income. New methods mean
solid walls can be insulated by applying cladding to the outside of
a property and then covered with a render finish.
Funding is only available until Autumn 2012
or until it runs out so it is vital people contact Yorkshire Energy
Partnership earlier rather than later to express their
interest. Anyone wanting to take advantage of the offer,
should contact the YEP on 01904 55 44 06.
The funding is available because by law, energy providers are
required to work towards national carbon reduction targets by
helping to improve the energy efficiency of homes.