Grant amounts for AHB homes under the NHEUS (National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme) and Community Energy Grant (CEG) will increase to provide 75% of the cost, and for fuel poor homes, to 80% of the overall cost of upgrade.
These increases, together with the support available from obligated parties under the EEOS (Energy Efficiency Obligation Scheme), could provide funding in excess of 90% of the cost of AHBs retrofit programme. We look forward to receiving the updated technical requirements and final terms and conditions of the scheme which will be made available later in the near future.
Members of the Housing Alliance Climate Action Working Group have been advocating, throughout the past year, to maximise the sectors impact and contribution towards meeting 2030 climate action goals
Susan Vickers, Chair of the Housing Alliance Climate Action Working Group and Head of Environmental Sustainability at Clúid said “I want to acknowledge the hard work of the Climate Action Working Group, along with the support of the ICSH and in particular the invaluable guidance of Sustainability Works, in achieving our ambition to increase much needed retrofit funding for the AHB sector.”
The AHB sector supports over 140,000 people in over 50,000 homes in Ireland, representing approximately 30% of Ireland’s social and affordable housing stock. The sector sits at a vital intersection: delivering secure, quality housing while also demonstrating how the residential sector can lead the way in decarbonisation. The Housing Alliance represent seven of the country’s largest AHB’s, represents 70% of social and affordable homes in the sector. With this announcement of increased funding, the AHB sector now has an opportunity to retrofit homes at scale, not only contributing to achieving Ireland’s climate targets but also to reduce energy poverty for some of the most economically challenged people in our society.
Vickers continues, “With these improvements to the current funding model, our members, and the wider AHB sector can scale up and increase the speed of retrofit works, ensuring that our residents will benefit from warmer homes and reduced energy bills”
The sector is uniquely positioned to show how climate action and social impact can go hand in hand. AHBs have delivered an aggregate of over 3,000 home retrofits since the beginning of the SEAI’s One Stop Shop (OSS) and CEG grant programmes and are currently undertaking c. 700 retrofits per year according to SEAI data.
