The Deputy Prime Minister has announced that at least £540 million of the government’s home energy efficiency programme – worth £1.3bn per year – will be targeted at helping the poorest.
In his speech, Nick Clegg said “We will be requiring the energy companies to provide an estimated £1.3bn a year of support for energy efficiency in our homes with at least £540m to fund energy saving improvements in the worst off homes.
This includes:
- Around £350m a year to deliver heating and insulation measures to around 270,000 low income and vulnerable households by 2015, helping them to heat their homes to a healthy level and demonstrating our commitment to tackling fuel poverty
- For those living in the poorest areas, including in social housing, specific support worth around £190m a year will be available from the energy companies to upgrade homes and flats with loft and cavity wall insulation, as well as other insulation measures, to make them warmer and cheaper to run.
Also:
- A large proportion of the Energy Company Obligation will still be targeted at solid wall insulation, but support will be opened up for more measures than before – including hard to treat cavity walls. And where solid wall or hard to treat cavity insulation is being installed this can be accompanied by other measures which reduce heat loss from a property, such as glazing and draught proofing.
- Energy companies will be allowed to carry forward overachievement against their targets under the current Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) and count it towards their ECO targets.
- These changes will help smooth the transition for the insulation industry between current schemes and the Green Deal. We will continue work with this industry to see if there is more we can do to help them manage the impacts of the transition.
(from DECC bulletin)
Many people are choosing to update a room by painting the floor as it gives such a clean and bright feel and changes the feel completely, and you can alter the style of stairs by giving it facelift. Choose muted tones of white, off-white or pale grey or go for something complely different and choose a bold bright colour! Most importanly is your choice of paint – make sure you choose a paint designed specifically for floors as it has to withstand an awful lot of wear and tear.
Both projects will talk you through the preparation needed and the tools needed for the job. It is worth spending time on the prep or you will find the paint will not adhere to the surface. Some planning before starting will be necessary as if you are painting a floor, it is best to have cleared the area completely for the duration of the task, and if it is a staircase, you really need to avoid using the stairs as much as possible to avoid dust and grease and to allow a decent amount of drying time.