Published: Monday, 25th November 2024
The Borough Council has reached 250 ‘declarations of eligibility’ for homes in West Norfolk under the government’s ECO4 scheme.
These households are eligible to receive fully-funded energy efficiency improvements worth thousands of pounds.
130 homes have been completed, all of which now have an EPC rating of C or better, meaning that they are much cheaper to heat and also the process of heating the home has a much smaller impact on the environment.
The council’s cabinet member for people and communities, Cllr Jo Rust, said:
“What a wonderful milestone to celebrate. We know that fuel poverty is a common issue in rural areas and our success in rolling out this scheme is having a positive impact on the lives of hundreds of people in West Norfolk.
“One of our key priorities is supporting our communities and this is an area where our success is clear. We’ve been told time and again by happy residents what a difference it has made to how warm their home is, and what a difference it is making to their bills.
“It’s a win-win – our success in delivering this scheme is a great success for the people who are benefiting from it.”
Cabinet member for climate change, Cllr Michael de Whalley, added:
“We are making life better for our residents and we are doing so in a way that protects the planet.
“All the properties that have been completed now have a significantly improved EPC rating and we estimate that this is saving around 715 tons* of CO2 every year. The more houses we improve, the more CO2 we save.
“I can’t think of a better outcome!”
*Metric tons
The ECO4 scheme is a government scheme whereby eligible households can have a range of fully-funded improvements undertaken, including the installation of home insulation, new energy-efficient boilers and solar panels.
To be eligible, a household should meet one of these criteria:
- A combined household income of less than £31,000 per year (before tax etc.)
- Someone in the house has one of a number of listed health conditions that make them vulnerable to the cold
- Receiving certain benefits
The scheme runs until March 2026 and the council is committed to continuing to issue declarations until that point to make sure that as many people as possible benefit from the scheme.
Once a declaration has been issued, the householder selects their own supplier to do the work. The council doesn’t make recommendations but encourages people to use Trustmark-approved suppliers. Fortunately there are a number of excellent suppliers in this area.
For more information visit www.west-norfolk.gov.uk/eco4 or call 01553 616200. The web page includes an eligibility checker.
Case study
The very first people in West Norfolk to have their declaration of eligibility issued have no regrets about their decision to apply for an ECO4 grant.
Hilary and Malcolm, who live in Fair Green, just outside King’s Lynn, said:
We were referred to the Borough Council by Norfolk Warm Homes: we had to fill in an application form but council helped with that and overall our experience of the process has been very good.
We were over the moon to discover that we were eligible. Once the council issued our declaration of eligibility, we had to select our own installer so we went for someone who was TrustMark accredited.
The installer carried out assessments on our home and then recommended what measures we should have. They were very good: we had a say in what we did and didn’t want, and where things such as control panels should go, which was really important to us.
It has changed our lives in lots of ways. I used to do washing at night but now it makes sense to do it when the sun is out, which is much more convenient!
The measures have made our lives much more comfortable: our house keeps the heat in and we’re saving money on our energy bills. We’re very grateful and we have no regrets about having these improvements to our home.
Jacob Medlock, the council’s Housing Standards Officer (Energy Efficiency), adds:
Malcolm and Hilary’s application took a while as it was the first one we had done but we all learned a lot and 250 declarations in we have the process running pretty smoothly!
We’ve got a lot of very happy customers who are reaping the benefits of having the work done, both from the financial side – because they are saving money – and the comfort side because their home is warmer.
We understand that in other areas there have been issues with the quality of work by installers. I can only say that we are blessed with really good installers in this area and we haven’t had any problems.
Our customers have been really happy with the people doing work in their homes and the quality of the workmanship. And of course they’ve been happy with the results!