Under my Department’s Social Housing Investment Programme, local authorities are allocated funding each year in respect of a range of measures to improve the standard and overall quality of their social housing stock. This year’s programme includes a retrofitting measure aimed specifically at improving the energy efficiency of older apartments and houses by reducing heat loss through the fabric of the building. On 1 March 2013, I announced capital allocations of €10m to local authorities in respect of energy efficiency retrofitting works for this year. Earlier this month, I announced a new €50 million three-year energy efficiency investment programme for local authority homes. This is a key part of the Government’s additional €150 million capital investment in the economy over 2013-2014 aimed at stimulating growth.
This programme will target the 25,000 least energy efficient local authority homes. This will result in warmer homes and lower energy bills for thousands of families and will also create around 1,000 jobs in the sector. I intend to announce capital allocations to local authorities very shortly in order that contracts can be commenced as soon as possible. This programme will operate nationwide and homes in all local authority areas will benefit under this measure. My Department met recently with housing practitioners from all local authorities with the objective of getting work started as quickly as possible. Some €10 million of the €50 million programme is available for spending in 2013.
