Image: Maria Godfrida (Pixabay).
The winners of the Local Authority segment of the Green Homes Grant have been unveiled, with £74 million allocated to over 100 local authorities for installations taking place by June 2021.
The Local Authority Delivery scheme – which includes solar PV as an eligible technology – makes up £500 million of the full £2 billion Green Homes Grant scheme, with the government having now announced the allocations for this funding.
Alongside the £74 million allocated for installations by June, a further £126 million has been allocated to 81 local authorities for works to be completed by September and an additional £300 million has been distributed to England’s five Local Energy Hubs, rolling out homes improvements up to December.
The Local Authority Delivery scheme is aiming to upgrade around 50,000 homes in total.
Solar Energy UK chief executive Chris Hewett praised how "great" it is to a "successful government initiative on green retrofitting of homes", adding that it is "especially good news" that some social housing will be getting solar power and solar heat installations as a result of the scheme.
The announcement of the funding allocations comes after figures were released on the Green Homes Grant Voucher scheme, which makes up the remaining £1.5 billion of funding and has been faced with a raft of administrative problems leading to delays in payments and repeated calls for improvements to the scheme.
These figures showed that as of the end of February, there have been 123,537 voucher applications, although only 28,277 vouchers have been issued and only 5,804 actual installations, with 2,908 vouchers paid.