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£1million funding to tackle fuel poverty

The Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership has played a major part in the region receiving £1million from the Government to tackle fuel poverty.

Coventry City Council has received up to £660,000 and Warwickshire County Council has obtained nearly £400,000 to support initiatives aimed at boosting energy efficiency, reducing fuel poverty and encouraging collective energy switching to cheaper tariffs as part of the Government’s Fuel Poverty initiative.

The money is being targeted at areas of the sub-region with significant levels of fuel poverty and also those who are not connected to the mains gas supply.

The CW LEP’s Low Carbon Group was part of the discussions to formulate the councils’ bid for a share of the £40 million of nationwide funding from the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Keith Budden, chair of the CW LEP Low Carbon Business Group, said the allocation of £1 million funding to Coventry and Warwickshire was a tremendous boost to the local economy and will help reduce energy bills and create local jobs by making the homes of some of the poorest residents more energy efficient.

He said: “The Low Carbon Business Group was established to help with exactly such programmes; increasing the energy efficiency of homes, companies and public buildings.

“But it will also benefit local contractors who will be carrying out the work to help low-income families reduce heating costs by installing more efficient boilers, cavity wall insulation, external wall and loft insulation.

“This funding will be a great way of highlighting the difference that energy efficiency can make to household bills and reduce our carbon footprint throughout the region which is another positive knock-on effect.

“We will also encourage collective energy switching schemes for people to join together to get the best energy deal which will lead to further savings.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership .