Agenda item

Report of the Director of Transportation, Highways and Sustainability

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Transportation, Highways and Sustainability, that would also be considered at the meeting of Council on 5th September 2023, which sought approval to accept £2.8 million of Homes Upgrade Grant 2 (HUG2), awarded by the Midlands Net Zero Hub (MNZH), which would help to improve the energy efficiency of up to 150 homes.

Coventry’s draft Climate Change Strategy, published earlier this year, set out an ambitious vision for how the city intended to ‘tackle the causes and consequences of climate change’, which was a key priority of the One Coventry Plan. To accompany the strategy, a Net Zero Routemap for Coventry was produced, which identified emissions from homes as the biggest contributor to the city’s carbon footprint, totalling 30% of all emissions.

Over the past 18 months, the Council had been accelerating action on domestic retrofit to help make homes more energy efficient, successfully attracting almost £30m external grant funding to support residents across all housing tenures in the city, including social housing, homeowners, and privately rented tenants. The challenges to this sector were huge, the funding secured to date would improve the energy efficiency of 2,500 homes, but with 143,000 properties across the city activity needed to be significantly scaled up to help reduce the carbon footprint and to support the alleviation of fuel poverty, the Council’s Strategic Energy Partnership would help to support these ambitions.

The report sought approval to accept £2.8 million of Homes Upgrade Grant 2 (HUG2), awarded by the Midlands Net Zero Hub (MNZH), which would help to improve the energy efficiency of up to 150 homes, and also provided an update on progress to domestic retrofit in Coventry to date, highlighting schemes that this funding would align with and complement. 

The Homes Upgrade Grant Phase 2 Scheme would support the retrofit of energy efficiency measures for low-income households and those with low Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings and no gas central heating within Coventry.

The funding was available for up to 100% of both capital and revenue costs associated with its delivery, subject to eligibility criteria being fulfilled. The Council would ensure it aligned and complemented both the existing ‘Keeping Coventry Warm’ scheme, as well as the other domestic retrofit schemes being delivered across the city.

The funding was essential to support some of the most vulnerable residents in the community to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and reduce the levels of fuel poverty across the city. This would in turn lead to:

1)  reduction in Coventry’s domestic carbon emissions.

2)  reduction in health-related morbidity and mortality associated with living in cold homes.

3)  reduced demand placed on health and care services.

4)  improved energy efficiency, reduced energy bills and increased thermal comfort.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet recommends that Council:

1)  Approves acceptance of MNZH’s HUG2 allocation to Coventry totalling £2,810,500 to enable the Council to deliver a scheme of domestic retrofit measures to off-gas fuel poor and low-income households in Coventry as set out in the report.

2)  Delegates authority to the Director of Transportation, Highways and Sustainability, following consultation with the Chief Operating Officer (Section 151 Officer) and the Chief Legal Officer, to undertake the necessary due diligence, finalise the terms and conditions of the HUG2 grant, and enter into any legal agreements required to facilitate delivery of the project.

3)  Agrees that delegation be given to the Director of Transportation, Highways and Sustainability to pursue and accept further funding opportunities up to £5 million that may be offered to support further decarbonisation of the city’s domestic buildings, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration, and Climate Change and the Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources.