How we’re placing households in Great Yarmouth at the heart of the energy transition
Heat pumps, solar panels and improved insulation – how hundreds of homes across Great Yarmouth are benefitting from improved energy efficiency, warmer homes and cheaper bills.
As part of our mission to make new energy work, we’re creating warmer and more comfortable homes that are more energy efficient and cheaper to run for low-income households across the UK. One such project is our work with Great Yarmouth Borough Council, as part of the Government’s Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) scheme.
The HUG scheme was set up to improve the energy efficiency of homes across England. We’re working in partnership with local authorities, like Great Yarmouth Borough Council, to support low-income households without gas central heating by installing energy efficiency upgrades to help reduce their energy costs and make homes cheaper to run.
Great Yarmouth Borough Council was awarded £6.4 million as part of the HUG scheme, and we worked closely with the council to identify eligible properties across the area for improvements. As the council’s delivery partner, we improved the energy efficiency of over 300 homes across the area at no cost to the residents.
Together, we helped create warmer and more comfortable homes. With residents benefitting from a fabric-first approach, which involves improving the home’s energy efficiency by focusing on its physical fabric, we installed wall and loft insulation, air source heat pumps and solar panels. Not only are residents now benefitting from energy efficient home heating, but they’re also able to generate their own electricity and even have the option to sell what they don’t use back to the grid.
Providing residents with the flexibility to export their electricity places them in full control of their energy and also right at the heart of the energy transition, ensuring their energy bills are affordable now and into the future.
To find out more about how the residents have found and benefited from the energy efficient upgrades, we spoke to two local residents, John and Sophie.
John said: “When I was contacted by E.ON and they said they were sending a surveyor out to look at the property and everything would be free, including heat pump, solar panels etc. I was amazed. The improvement that it has made has been really outstanding. We have heating in every room. Before, we used to have a solid fuel boiler and it had been working for 45 years and it finally gave up the ghost, so this was a great improvement.”
Sophie added: “When we found out that we could receive solar panels on our home, we were really happy because obviously we were worried about the cost of living going up. But we were really lucky to find out that they could even do cavity wall and loft insulation. And all of this was covered under the grant.
“I would recommend getting the home improvements because it can make an impact on bills and also the warmth of the home. It can be a little bit disruptive, but at the end of the day you’re getting things done to your home that you would have wanted to get done. And they’re being done under a grant. So I think for a few days of pain, you’re able to reap the benefits a little bit later on.”
We’re committed to adding real value to communities across the UK and to benefit individual households in need of extra support. We’re proud to partner with local authorities, housing providers and government bodies around the country to deliver meaningful energy efficiency improvements to thousands of households.
Marc Brooker, Project Surveyor at Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said: “Great Yarmouth Borough Council used E.ON to provide a turnkey service to deliver Homes Upgrade Grant (HUG) funding, following the success of HUG, we are now working with E.ON to deliver HUG2. The approach of E.ON is one of partnership and collaboration which supports the successful delivery of the HUG programmes and ensures that they are delivered in accordance with the grant programme requirements. The partnership approach is key to the success achieved.”
Interested in finding out more? If you’re a housing provider or local authority, please visit our green funding solutions webpage. Or if you’re a residential customer, you can check whether you’re eligible for energy efficiency improvement grants by using our grants finder.