This story from Green Party Asssemby Member Zack Polanski, puts today's retrofit announcement from Brent Council in perspective. Brent was awarded the second lowest amount of the successsful London boroughs:
Green London Assembly Member Zack Polanski today revealed to the
Mayor that just 45 homes had been retrofitted across London under the
Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, despite £18 million being
made available to London councils over a year ago.
The measures to improve the energy efficiency of
London’s homes were supposed to be completed by the end of March 2023, but a
shortage of skilled workers has delayed delivery.
Green London Assembly Member Zack Polanski said:
The Mayor is still sitting on his hands despite
declaring a ‘retrofit revolution’ two years ago.
His failure to get a handle on the retrofit skills
gap is preventing London benefitting from available Government funds.
The Mayor needs to get his retrofit revolution on the right track,
support the upgrading of homes and protect Londoners from sky-high energy
bills.
Nine of the 11 London boroughs awarded funds have
failed to deliver any retrofitting works at all. This represents over £13
million of available government funding not being put to use.
Across the country, just 14% of the planned 20,000
homes expected to be upgraded have had works completed. As a result, the
deadline for local authorities to spend the first wave of funding has been
extended to June.
Housing experts, including representatives from
the Chartered Institute of Housing, say the slow rollout of retrofit upgrades
stems from a national skills shortage in the retrofit sector.[5] London
Councils have said that London needs 110,000 people working in retrofit by
2030. Currently, there are only 4,000
The publication of this data comes after the Mayor
of London showed hesitance to ramp-up his retrofit skills training offer using
his £320 million Adult Education Budget. Speaking to the London Assembly in
November, the Mayor said, “what we need is some certainty there are [retrofit]
jobs to go to.”
With Londoners facing rising bills during the cost
of living crisis, retrofitting homes to improve their energy efficiency is a
way to reduce energy bills and household costs – while reducing emissions.
The second wave of funding, being made available
to local authorities and housing associations later this year, is around four
times the budget of the first wave, at almost £800 million.
