New scheme to help thousands with a £1500 payment to reduce energy bills

The government will announce next week a new scheme to offer grants of up to £1500 to middle income households to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, according to recent reports.

The new initiative will be named ‘eco plus’ and, unlike other energy schemes, is designed to incentivise those people who can already afford to pay for the work. The funding will go towards subsidising loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and smart heating controls. as per The Times.

Who’s eligible?

The government has set aside £1 billion for the next three years from existing budgets and hopes to improve the energy efficiency of up to 70,000 houses with it.

The scheme is expected to start in April and a Westminster source stated that Business Secretary Grant Shapps wants to offer the scheme to people in council tax bands A to D. The government will cover up to 75% of costs of and the grants will be administered by the household’s energy supplier, as per the Liverpool Echo.

The new initiative is part of the attempt by the government to cut people’s energy use by 15% by 2030 and is expected to save each household hundreds of pounds a year.

Savings

Savings will depend on the type of house and measures taken but significant savings can be made immediately, which will soon cover the cost of the building work. Measures include, as per The Times:

• Installing loft insulation can cost up to £1,100 but save £640 a year.
• Cavity wall insulation costs as much as £2,500 but can save £525 per year.
• Smart heating controls such as advanced thermostats and thermostatic valves cost up to £800 but can save £525 a year.

The plan has similarities to the previous Green Homes Grant which also provided funding for energy saving measures, however was not successful with critics calling it ‘badly designed’, ‘over-complex’ and running at a ‘snail's pace’. The scheme ended last year with only 52,000 of the 600,000 vouchers being claimed and much of the money going unspent.

Sources used:

- The Times '£1,500 grants to help middle earners insulate their homes and save on bills'

- The Liverpool Echo 'Many UK households to get £1,500 to help with energy bills'

- The Sun 'Tens of thousands of homeowners could get grants of up to £1.5k to help save on energy bills – can you apply?'