A new independent service backed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has launched, to offer support creating more energy efficient homes in the city-region.
Almost every building in the UK has the potential to use less fuel for heating, lighting and appliances. Your Home Better offers advice to people across the city-region to upgrade their homes in a greener, more affordable way.
Your Home, Better is an independent service delivered by retrofit experts. The service gives advice on measures to help deliver the performance needed to achieve a more energy-efficient, healthier, and comfortable home.
Experts can deliver a ‘whole house’ assessment of homes and provide homeowners with a bespoke plan – giving information about how they can upgrade their home’s energy performance, including what should be done and in what order.
Your Home, Better does not offer grants or funding, but the service can identify sources that could help towards the costs of home energy projects.
It will initially focus on the 31 per cent of Greater Manchester homeowners who have expressed a desire to pay for some form of retrofit in the next five years with the correct assurances and support.
Your Home, Better will build upon the £27 million GMCA invested earlier this year through the Green Homes Grant. The Green Homes Grant supports lower-income households in or at risk of fuel poverty with grants of up to £10,000 to make their homes warmer, reduce their energy bills, and help protect the environment.
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “In Greater Manchester, we’re serious about making the changes needed so we can reach our target of becoming a carbon-neutral city region by 2038, but this needs to be a fair transition. That means doing all we can to support people through the journey to net-zero carbon and making the costs of living more affordable as well as greener.
“A big part of that is introducing energy-saving measures to people’s homes, whilst reducing their bills. The £27million we are investing through our Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme has already allowed us to help over 1,000 of the most vulnerable households in our region by offering better-insulated homes with modern, environmentally-friendly heating systems that are lower carbon and more affordable to heat.
“Our new Your Home, Better retrofit scheme will further boost our efforts and will offer support to even more people in Greater Manchester who may not have been eligible for other help.”
Councillor Neil Emmott, Lead for Green City Region and Waste & Recycling, said: “Retrofitting is an essential tool in our arsenal when it comes to cutting our emissions and future-proofing our homes and businesses. Installing energy efficiency improvements reduces the reliance of homes on carbon, but it can also help to reduce people’s bills – at a time now where they need it most.”
For more information and to get in touch, visit the Your Home, Better website.
