Decision details

The report proposes introducing local criteria to the Warm Homes Fund grant to better target support at the most vulnerable households. This will help ensure funding reaches those experiencing fuel poverty, improve fairness and transparency, and align with the council’s priorities on tackling fuel poverty and climate change. The decision required is whether to adopt additional criteria to enhance the impact and value for money by focusing the funding on those most in need.

Local operational guidance has been adopted to support the delivery of the Warm Homes Fund grant within the private sector.

To make the Warm Homes: Local Grants programme as effective as possible for those most in need, while meeting funding requirements. The guidance supports national and local goals to reduce fuel poverty and cut carbon emissions. By prioritising households in council tax bands, A–D, resources are shared fairly. Homes that are harder to treat or in conservation areas are given lower priority, so funding achieves the greatest impact. This approach ensures transparency and delivers measurable improvements in energy efficiency for vulnerable residents.

Including listed and hard-to-treat homes as equal priority was considered but found to be unviable due to excessive costs and planning constraints. Treating all Council Tax banded properties the same would also allow owners of high-value homes to access the grant, diverting resources away from those in greatest need. Giving these property types a lower priority provides flexibility to revisit them should additional or surplus funding become available.