The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) said the fund is expected to help up to 8,000 fuel poor homes which are not connected to the UK gas grid by installing first-time central heating systems.
Energy secretary Ed Davey said the new competition will “go further” following the government’s Green Deal and ECO schemes which it says have helped over a million homes so far.
In a joint-statement with Decc, the National Housing Federation’s head of policy Rachel Fisher encouraged housing associations to take an in-depth look at the funding competition “to see how they can use it to make the most lasting impact”.
“ provides a unique opportunity to improve the quality of life of thousands of tenants by lifting them out of fuel poverty with the installation of new heating technologies, including renewable heat,” Fisher said.
In addition the government has published further detail on its ‘warmth-on-prescription’ fund which will help nine local authorities to help those in fuel poverty whose health is affected by cold homes.
“The heat is on for warmer, healthy homes,” Davey said.