Energy supplier British Gas has been awarded a new seven-year contract to deliver services via the Welsh government’s Warm Homes scheme.
The Warm Homes Nest scheme, of which this new contract is a continuation, offers energy efficiency measures, including heat pumps and solar panels for low-income households and those in deprived communities to keep warm and reduce their energy bills.
Launched in 2011, it has helped 60,300 low-income households with a package of free home energy efficiency measures in an effort to tackle fuel poverty.
The new scheme will focus specifically on low-carbon technologies for the home, aiming to deliver energy efficiency improvements in up to 2000 properties per year.
The contract will begin on 1 April 2024 and is expected to run up until 1 April 2031.
Chris O’Shea, group chief executive of Centrica and owner of British Gas, said: “I am so pleased we have the privilege of continuing this work in Wales, and I am excited to dial up our efforts to improve the energy efficiency of properties across the country.
“Our dedicated team based in Ebbw Vale and field teams across Wales have successfully delivered energy efficiency measures to thousands of homes, and we look forward to doing this for another seven years.”
Top of the leaderboard
Initiatives such as the Warm Homes Nest scheme and the Optimised Retrofit Programme, which offers funding to Welsh social landlords and local authorities to decarbonise social housing by way of whole-house retrofitting, mean that Wales is leading the UK in small-scale decarbonisation.
The Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) confirmed that Welsh homes and businesses installed a record number of heat pumps across 2023 as well as solar panels.
Wales saw more than double the amount of certified renewable installations in Wales than the previous year, bringing the total number of Welsh homes and businesses with renewable energy to over 100,000.
One of the most notable increases was that of heat pump installations, which rose by 147% between 2022 and 2023 as a result of Welsh schemes as well as the UK government initiatives like the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS).
Introduced in 2022, the BUS offers grants of up to £7,500 to help cover the upfront costs of installing domestic air source heat pumps.
Small-scale renewable installations in England represent over 5.7% of households, placing it behind Wales and Scotland, which have 8.4% and 8.2% of households with installations, respectively.
