• reduce carbon emissions
• achieve cost savings for householders
• create ‘green’ jobs
• stimulate business growth.

What does it offer and to who?

Londoners will be given an opportunity to cut their bills and make their homes more energy efficient under this programme.
It encompasses all housing tenures across London including owner occupied, privately rented, social housing and landlords.
It is to offer something for every borough and every household and is a whole house approach. The aim is to upscale existing homes retrofit schemes and leverage additional funds for London.
The scheme will include free-of-charge, easy-to-do and innovative measures – from changing to low energy light bulbs to installing stand-by switches. The aim is that more substantial steps, such as loft and cavity wall insulation, will involve no upfront costs and be free for those on benefits and subsidised for those able to pay.

How to access its offering

It aims to begin roll out from April 2010, after the completion of technical trails and demonstration projects to showcase how to retrofit homes to become more energy efficient.
The programme is at the stage of seeking bids from London’s five housing sub-regions to deliver demonstration projects as part of the development of a pan-London Homes Energy Efficiency Programme. Each Sub-region can bid for approx. £250,000 in order to deliver the programme to up to 2000 homes on an area basis. In April 2010, the programme will be rolled out across London.

What are the benefits?

The pan-London scheme benchmarks best practice delivery models across all tenures and facilitates a consistent approach that can be scaled up to meet London Carbon reduction targets.
The programme’s main focus is energy efficiency and carbon reduction. However, the scheme will also incorporate funding streams that address fuel poverty and decent homes. Only by utilising these various funding streams in a holistic and integrated fashion, on a well-managed area basis, can HEEP achieve the standards and scale required.

Who’s delivering the programme

HEEP is a joint initiative between the Mayor of London, the London Development Agency, London Councils, and the capital’s 33 boroughs.
The programme will be operated by London’s borough councils and will aim to provide improvements on an area basis. Housing Sub-regions and boroughs will be given full support from the LDA, GLA, London Councils and senior management as well as support from the HEEP team and the Energy Saving Trust.

Why the LDA is involved?

Over a third of London’s carbon dioxide emissions are generated from homes. HEEP aims to build on existing schemes designed to improve London’s domestic homes providing residents with a series of simple measures to reduce their energy use.
By working with London’s boroughs and the utility companies, this will generate a step change in energy consumption across the capital, and make real progress toward the Mayo’s target to cut London’s carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025.
While there is a range of organisations providing energy efficiency schemes to Londoners, a single city-wide scheme would provide consistency for residents, increase uptake and boost the potential to attract additional funding.

The Boiler Scrappage Scheme announced in December’s pre-Budget report has finally been launched, enabling homeowners in England to receive a £400 discount on a new boiler if their existing one meets the criteria set out in the scheme.
Up to 125,000 households could benefit from the scheme, including those who own their own homes and landlords who privately rent out their homes. However social landlords, housing associations and boiler installers are not eligible. To qualify, homeowners need to have a working G-rated boiler which is the main boiler used to heat the home (although for those over 60, the boiler does not need to be in working order).

To find out if your boiler qualifies, visit our SEDUK Database or let npower identify your boiler model and efficiency rating and you may be able to save up to £800 with the npower Boiler Scrappage Scheme.
If your boiler does qualify for replacement, suppliers and qualified installers including  npower will be able to provide a quotation for a new A-rated boiler or renewable heating system. Once you have selected an installer to fit the new boiler, you’ll need to provide the Energy Savings Trust (EST) with confirmation of; the qualified installer, that they have also visited your home or property to make assessment, provided an approved quotation, together with details of the existing G-rated boiler being replaced.
Once your submission is approved, the EST will then issue a voucher worth £400 from 18th January 2010, which is valid for 12 weeks. And once the new boiler is fitted, the homeowner pays the bill in full to the installer, then claims the £400 back from the EST using the voucher, a process which should take no longer than 25 days.
Various energy suppliers including  npower and British Gas, have already launched their own Boiler Scrappage Schemes, and in some cases are offering better discounts compared to the Government’s £400 discount, meaning householders could save up to £800 through the scheme.
Friends of the Earth however have criticised the scheme for not going far enough.  boiler scrappage scheme is a welcome initiative but pathetically small,” said climate campaigner Dave Timms. “It will only reach 125,000 households when the UK has over 4m inefficient G-rated boilers.”