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Kickstart your New Year retrofit resolutions with SHDF Wave 2.2

Hot on the heels of earlier waves of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), the government has announced an additional £80m for social landlords to deliver domestic retrofit projects.

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David Kemp is Associate director and sustainability lead, North at Turner & Townsend

This latest wave (2.2) of funding is targeted at organisations that did not receive funding under SHDF Wave 2.1 in March 2023.

Over £1bn has been allocated through SHDF so far to improve more than 100,000 social homes across England.  So, what are you waiting for?

There is still time to bid

If you haven’t started an application, it’s not too late to bid and grab a slice of this latest funding.  

In December, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced an extension to the application window, ensuring as many eligible organisations as possible have the opportunity to submit high-quality bids after the holiday period. Eligible social housing landlords now have until 31 January 2024 to apply.

Regardless of your in-house experience, the expert team at the Social Housing Retrofit Accelerator (SHRA) is on hand to help you get a strong bid together and submitted on time. The support on offer is completely free (funded by the government) and includes bespoke one-to-one advice, ‘critical friend’ reviews of your draft application, and online webinars, toolkits and podcasts to guide you through the bid-writing process.

The SHRA can be accessed by all prospective applicants, including those working with ’turnkey’ delivery partner contractors. The SHRA guidance and advice compliments the services provided by supply chain companies to maximise the chance of a successful application.

For smaller organisations looking to meet the SHDF project property number targets, the SHRA can also support with consortium forming by matching you with organisations in your region.

To get started, complete the SHRA’s simple Self-Assessment tool to find out what support you need. If you’re unable to answer some of the questions now or need assistance in completing the forms, our team can pick up with you and provide assistance.

Setting up for future success 

If you’re holding out for a future wave of SHDF, be reassured that being successful in Wave 2.2 will not prohibit you from bidding for a future Wave 3 of funding. If your organisation is eligible for Wave 2.2 funding, we encourage you to apply now, especially bidders that didn’t secure funding in Wave 2.1. Applications for Wave 2.2 will build experience and knowledge of retrofit and of SHDF which will, undoubtedly, help landlords to put together a higher quality, and perhaps more ambitious, application for future waves of funding, as recently announced by government.

Be bold and think big

If you have already started an application to SHDF or are considering applying, then be ambitious.  

Every house retrofitted is a warmer, more comfortable home for tenants, that is also more affordable to run. Decarbonising a home can be transformative for the physical and mental health and wellbeing of those who live in it – so let’s stretch your programmes and include as many retrofits as your organisation can deliver.

The specialist retrofit team at Turner & Townsend is delivering the SHRA free support in close partnership with the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero.  If you have any questions or apprehensions about a SHDF Wave 2.2 bid, get in touch for a no-obligation chat with the team.

You can contact us at info@socialhousingretrofit.org.uk.

David Kemp is an associate director and sustainability lead, North at Turner & Townsend