Colin Macpherson, Divisional CEO, Equans UK & Ireland, reacts to the latest results from Wave 3 of the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund

“Every home and building across the country will need to apply retrofit measures at some point in the near future and it makes absolute sense for social housing to be top of the priority list.  These homes house some of the most vulnerable members of our communities and Local Authorities and housing associations will continue to need access to capital that will allow them to undertake decarbonisation work, combat fuel poverty and keep energy bills as low as possible. 

“Each new wave of the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (and its Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund predecessor) has generated new waves of interest and that not only tells us there is an appetite to get a share of the pot, but that retrofitting social housing properties is a priority for local government. 

“This is something we know from conversations with our own customers and every piece of work we have planned through the previous three waves hasn’t just been derived and delivered with a particular number of homes in question, based on the budget; they have been mapped out as pilot projects to deliver decarbonisation at scale so we can tackle this matter on a macro level and arm local authorities and housing associations with vital data which will allow that.

“We hope the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero continue to keep social housing high on the sustainability agenda and unlock more much-needed funding to support these efforts.  As an industry we also need to continue adapting and taking key learnings from the work so far, so that work isn’t just delivered in small silos, but true place based decarbonisation can evolve.

Colin Macpherson, Divisional CEO, Equans UK & Ireland