SHDF Progress – one year on

22nd March 2024 marked one year since the Greener Herts project secured funding through the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

One year on, Greener Herts members continue to reach key milestones as we deliver the energy improvements enabled by this funding. With nearly 1,400 residents engaged across the consortium, the four partners (settle, B3Living, Dacorum Borough Council and Watford Community Housing) are implementing improvements to the energy performance of our homes, making them warmer and more comfortable for residents to live in.

Each partner’s contractors are working hard to maximise the installation of improvement measures. At the end of March, surveys had been completed on over 1,500 homes with work having started on over 400 of them. At the end of March 106 homes had already been certified as having reached EPC C,  the target set by the Government for the impact of improvements. 

With around £12.5m already spent on improvements and running the works, the next few months will see a progressive increase in the completion of measures installed as we continue to ramp up activity. We have many homes waiting on just one measure to be fully complete and expect a focus on completion of external works in particular which have been delayed by recent continuous poor weather. 

The project will see a total of around £40m spent by the four consortium members on making homes warmer and more energy efficient.

“Despite a very challenging external environment, we are really pleased with the position we have achieved at the end of the first year. We have lots more to do during the next 12 months. With the strong partnerships we’ve built, consortium members are all focussed on maintaining momentum in the coming months and fully completing as many homes as possible during the year ahead.”

— Gavin Cansfield - Chief Executive of settle, the lead consortium member

We’re delighted to see these quotes from residents, confirming the difference this investment in homes is making:

A settle resident: "The minute the cladding went on we noticed the difference. We hardly put the heating on at all now."

Watford Community Housing residents:

“I’m pleased with it and very happy with the colour – looking forward to it saving me money on my gas bill.”

“It is absolutely wonderful what they have done, the house looks really modern! All minor hiccups have been resolved so quickly and all the staff have been very friendly and helpful. We have hardly had to put the heating on at all which will make a very big difference to our heating bill!”