More people will get help to improve the energy efficiency of their homes through a new release of the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF).
From 9am, Wednesday 10 December, the popular scheme will open to new applications, with up to £5,600 available to households in England and Wales to help with the cost of installing energy saving measures such as solid wall insulation, double glazing, boilers, cavity wall and floor insulation.
Up to £30m in vouchers will be available and details of further releases will be announced on a quarterly basis with the next release expected in February 2015. This is part of the additional £100m for household energy efficiency measures announced in October 2014 which is in addition to the £450m already allocated to household energy efficiency over 2014 – 17.
The £30m will be split into two categories: up to £24m for solid wall insulation; up to £6m for two measures from a list of home improvements available under the scheme.
Once the funding under each category has been committed, no more applications will be taken for that category – though applications will still be taken for the other category if funds are still available.
The Green Deal Home Improvement Fund launched in June and has already provided vouchers for more than 20,000 households. Through this second release of funding, domestic energy customers can now receive:
up to £4000 for installing solid wall insulation;
up to £1000 for installing two measures from an approved list;
up to £100 refunded for their Green Deal Assessment;
up to £500 more if applying within 12 months of buying a new home.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said:“This fund is a big success story for the Green Deal – helping thousands of people improve their homes so that they’re warmer, greener and cheaper to run.
“The best way people can cut their energy bills, this winter and every winter, is to improve their homes so that they leak less heat and use less energy. That’s why we’ve increased the funding available for the Green Deal to help even more people start saving money sooner.”