- Mayor’s pioneering retrofit programmes have helped secure more than £160m in funding
- Millions invested in projects that will sustain thousands of green jobs in the capital
- Includes a £10m boost to Mayor’s Warmer Homes to help fuel poor households
- £730k to support retrofit academy to boost green skills
Pioneering energy efficiency programmes from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, have helped secure more than £160 million in government funding for the capital. Projects will boost London’s Green New Deal mission, led by the Mayor and London Councils, aiming to sustain and create new green jobs whilst tackling the climate emergency.
This sits alongside the investment Sadiq is making to support action on the climate and ecological emergency through other City Hall programmes on housing, adult education, skills and transport.
Almost £46 million has been secured through a bid co-ordinated by City Hall and boroughs for home retrofitting, to upgrade London’s energy inefficient homes, cut energy bills and reduce London’s carbon footprint.
London has been successful in its bid for the Government’s Local Authority Delivery scheme which aims to raise the energy efficiency of low-income and low-energy performance homes. This will apply to all housing tenures, including owner-occupied and privately rented homes. Retrofit measures will include air source heat pumps, solid wall insulation, solar PV, flat roof insulation and more.
Around £10 million of this fund will boost the Mayor’s successful Warmer Homes programme, which provides much-needed home upgrades and advice to fuel poor Londoners. London has the second highest rate of fuel poverty in the country with one in nine* London households unable to meet the cost of heating their homes.
The Mayor’s current £4.95 million Warmer Homes programme is set to improve around 1,200 homes this year including free heating, insulation and ventilation improvements. It is backed by his Warmer Homes Advice Service, providing fuel poor Londoners with free financial help (including help managing energy debt) and advice on heating homes.
Some £729,000 of funding for skills has been secured through a combined bid with the Greater London Authority led by the Retrofit Academy. This will help increase the number of Retrofit Coordinators qualified to carry out energy efficiency works. It will help develop a new National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) – on insulation, providing an understanding of whole-house retrofit. This aims to address skills gaps in the retrofit sector helping the supply chain to deliver zero-carbon homes.
The Mayor’s Retrofit Accelerator for Workplaces has also been successful in helping London’s public sector secure funding. The programme provides expert support needed to bid for funding and supports them to deliver the energy efficiency projects.
The Accelerator programme has supported 17 organisations which will receive over £112 million through the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund. Projects include energy efficiency in schools, academies, healthcare, local government buildings:
- Heat pumps, energy efficiency and solar PV for schools across, for example, the London Boroughs of Ealing and Hounslow, and with Harris Federation educational trust
- Heat pumps and other low-carbon measures at the London Borough of Lewisham and Newham
Achieving the Mayor’s aim to make London a zero-carbon city will require at least £10 billion in energy efficiency measures and could support over 140,000 jobs. However, public sector finances alone will not mobilise the investment required to make London zero-carbon and help a green recovery. Sadiq has commissioned the Green Finance Institute to explore opportunities to maximise the flow of private capital into London’s environmental priorities. This includes the capital investment required to upgrade London’s buildings, transport and energy networks to net zero emissions.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I am delighted to have helped secure more than £160 million for projects that will create green jobs in London as part of our Green New Deal to help both support our economic recovery from COVID and tackle inequalities faced in our city.
“It’s an unacceptable fact that, for so many Londoners, keeping their homes warm is a luxury they cannot afford and instead suffer cold, damp conditions throughout winter. The funding will directly help those living in ageing, energy-inefficient homes, and also support Londoners with the skills they need for jobs in the green economy.
“Through my Green New Deal fund we are directly targeting support to Londoners who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, including cleantech businesses that encourage greater diversity in the sector, particularly female and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic-led enterprises. We must rebuild our city post-COVID so that it’s cleaner, greener and fairer.
“London has a proven track record that shows that, when cities are empowered to deliver, they can achieve the transformation that we need to our economy and society.”
Julie Hirigoyen, Chief Executive at the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) and London Sustainable Development Commissioner, said:
“It is positive to see the Mayor’s office securing vital public funding to support retrofit measures in the capital. Retrofitting homes is a no regrets policy that delivers high-quality jobs, reduces costs to the NHS, lowers energy bills, and fights the climate crisis - all at the same time. It is also great to see the focus on how private capital can be mobilised to support London’s environmental policies as this will be key to unlocking the scale of investment required to respond to the climate and ecological crisis.”
Adam Scorer, Chief Executive of National Energy Action (NEA) said: “This is very welcome news. Over 600,000 households in London live on the lowest incomes in inefficient homes. This vital extra investment to support the Mayor’s Fuel Poverty Action Plan will help reduce unnecessary hardship, premature mortality, pressures on health services and create a fair transition to net zero.”
Notes to editors
*BEIS Fuel Poverty Statistics 2018: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics
The Mayor’s Retrofit Accelerator – Homes programme is supporting social housing landlords to ‘deep retrofit’ their homes, carrying out multiple energy upgrades at once. The first homes are due to be retrofitted to a net zero standard this year, with hundreds more going through procurement. In total over 1,600 whole-house retrofits in London’s ageing and energy-inefficient social housing stock to create warm, affordable and ultra-low carbon homes.
Nine ‘missions’ designed to tackle economic and social issues head-on have been agreed by London Recovery Board members following collective thinking from local authorities, health and care bodies, business groups, trade unions, the voluntary sector, academia, national Government and other bodies. As part of the decision-making process, Londoners have informed the priorities and content of the missions through a mass public engagement exercise using the Talk London platform, which currently has nearly 60,000 users.