Fresh after the launch of GMCA’s ‘Feel The Benefit’ campaign, Hellena Mason-Smith, Community Engagement Assistant from Your Home Better, takes a look at how you can reduce your home’s carbon emissions when making home improvements through this new programme…
Do you know how much carbon your home produces?
If we are serious about carbon neutrality, we must start to reduce carbon emissions from within our homes. UK homes are some of the largest producers of carbon emissions with the average home emitting around 4.5 tonnes of CO2 per year. Greater Manchester has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2038, and our homes may be the key to carbon neutrality.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority have now announced the launch of the Feel the Benefit campaign, which aims to help residents of the city understand how they can access grant funding and independent advice to improve their home. We aim to make homes healthier and reduce both carbon emissions and energy bills. By improving our existing housing stock is one of the key ways we can meet these aims and make homes more comfortable for the residents of Greater Manchester.
By completing a short questionnaire, applicants can see if they qualify for home improvements such as a new boiler, upgraded doors and windows or insulation. This exists for homeowners and private tenants who have an Energy Performance Certificate of less than a middle D rating. The questionnaire will see if applicants qualify for two different energy schemes – either Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) or ECO4. To access the GBIS scheme, applicants simply must be in a council tax band of A-D and can receive either fully funded or partially funded works to their homes. For ECO4, applicants can qualify if they receive one of the listed benefits: have a household income less than 31,000 gross annually or have a health condition such as a cardiovascular condition, a respiratory disease, limited mobility or immunosuppression. The coverage of the qualifying factors is wide, so it is recommended to all homeowners or private tenants who suffer from damp, mould, drafts or feel that when they heat their home, they don’t feel that their home is warm. If you qualify, the installer for your area will get in touch to discuss the improvements which they can carry out for you.
Your Home Better is the chosen advisor for the boroughs of Stockport, Salford and Trafford. We have been running events since December to explain what retrofitting is, how it can be done and how it can help people feel more comfortable in their homes. We have attended events with local community hubs, market events, health and wellbeing days, family events. We even sat in on a couple of different exercise classes!
One of the events we attend is The Bread and Butter Thing. They operate across the North of England and are dedicated to ending food waste. Food from larger supermarkets which can no longer be sold is collected to create three bags of food which is distributed to members to take home at the cost of only £8.50. Across these events, we’ve managed to get 52 people on the path to receiving free home improvement measures or impartial, honest energy advice and support.
We don’t just help with finding grant funded work, if you would like to finance your own home improvements such as solar panels, insulation or heat pumps – Your Home Better can help with this as well. Our Retrofit Assessors can provide you with a whole house plan, show you the best way to improve your home and how much you could save on your bills. We then get you quotes for the work you want to do from our tried and tested installers and offer support throughout your whole process of home improvements. Have a look at our website, www.yourhomebetter.co.uk to see examples of the kind of work we have carried out on other homes.
To engage with the public further, Your Home Better have also branded up an engagement vehicle to take out to community days, park events and car parks. You won’t miss it as it’s large, pink and purple! Come and say hello if you see us and have a chat about how we can help reduce carbon emissions and make your home better.
Do you know of any Salford, Trafford or Stockport events taking place that you think we should come along to? Want to know more about home improvements?
If you want to see if you qualify for any grant funding, go to https://gmca.retrofitportal.org.uk and fill in the questionnaire.
Reach out to us at LEAD@yourhomebetter.co.uk for more information, a retrofit assessment or support filling in the grant funded questionnaire.
