Chris D’Arcy, Chirpy Heat

The Government has just announced the winners of first round of funding that will help to improve 11,000 homes, with social housing providers securing the majority of the £13.7m. The Heat Network Efficiency Scheme is a £32m programme that aims to deliver simply better heat networks through optimisation studies and capital investment. The funding will help housing providers deliver significant efficiencies and reduce costs for landlords and customers, as well as reduce carbon emissions and improve service delivery. It should go a long way to changing the lives of those living on some of the more inefficient heat networks.

Chirpy Heat has been supporting housing providers across the country and has helped them secure over half of the projects receiving the funding. Chirpy Heat is the leading provider of independent heat network support in the country and provides end to end support to help providers improve heat networks and deliver on their promise of providing low cost, low carbon and reliable heating. In the first round of funding, Chirpy Heat has delivered:

• 50% of all revenue applications
• 42% of organisations with successful revenue applications
• All capital applications supported by Chirpy Heat awarded funding

With major investment in the growth of heat networks and full regulation coming in 2024 – both of which will directly impact on the sector – many housing providers are now putting plans in place so they can make the transition to being fully regulated energy suppliers in the same way that gas and electricity suppliers such as British Gas, Octopus and E.ON are. This will be a major step change from current regulation and will require a full range of requirements on customer service, technical standards, performance data and reporting.

A key part of this preparation will be identifying those homes on heat networks that are not performing as well as they could be and doing the detailed assessment and investment needed to change this. The HNES funding represents an opportunity to tackle those schemes that might struggle to meet the new requirements, as well as deliver lower costs for customers.

The HNES funding has been huge success for social housing providers, but it is limited and round 5 is rapidly approaching. If you think you might have schemes that are not performing as they should be now is the time to act and to assess your portfolio to get ready for fully regulation and deliver lower cost, low carbon and reliable heating.

For more information on funding and regulations contact Chirpy Heat at info@chirpyheat.com or here.

Chirpy Heat. Simply Better Heat Networks