Agenda item

 To consider a report from the Chief Executive.

Cllr Nick Holder, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change presented a report which provided an update on the procurement process for the delivery of the Home Upgrade Grant, and the procurement approach being taken.

Cllr Holder reported that Wiltshire Council has been successful in securing more than £3.6m of Home Upgrade Grant (HUG2) from the government to assist with energy efficiency measures of existing housing in the county. It has been awarded to retrofit up to 210 Wiltshire Homes by March 2025, supporting the council’s ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Cabinet noted that the HUG2 is a grant funding scheme launched by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to help local authorities to provide energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon heating systems to low-income households. The scheme targets the most underperforming homes without mains gas central heating, with 60% of the national funding ringfenced for rural Local Authorities.

Cllr Holder explained that a key focus of the scheme is to increase the energy efficiency of homes and phase out the use of fossil fuel heating to make progress towards meeting the UKs 2050 Net Zero commitment. It will also support improved household health and wellbeing by reducing the number of cold homes and play a key role in the governments wider programme of green retrofit. He further explained the benefits of investing in energy efficiency upgrades.

Cllr Gordon King, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, welcomed the report and proposals and asked if a database existed of the properties eligible for grant funding, and whether boats and traveller sites were included for consideration. Cllr Holder noted the challenge ahead in identifying properties eligible for grant funding and explained that outreach would be undertaken with community groups and the eligibility criteria for funding was available in the appendix to the Cabinet report.

Cllr Jerry Kunkler, Chair of the Environment Select Committee, reported that he and Cllr Bob Jones MBE, Vice-Chair of the Select Committee received a briefing from officers on considered the Strategy at their meeting on 6 December 2023. They welcomed the report and supported the proposals.

Cllr Richard Budden supported the proposals and welcomed the outreach to community groups which would be crucial for the delivery of the programme.

Resolved:

That Cabinet:

1.    Agree that a Find a Tender Service (FTS) compliant contract be awarded to enable the delivery of energy efficiency improvements to low-income owner-occupied homes in Wiltshire.

2.    Delegate authority for awarding the contract to the new service provider/s to the Corporate Director for Resources & Deputy Chief Executive, and the Director for Environment in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change.

Reason for Decision:

The recommendations included in this paper have been proposed following extensive research and in consultation with subject matter experts. The justification for each of the procurement proposals included in this report are as follows:

1.    Retrofit services will be procured via a FTS compliant means. This is to speed up the procurement of the services by removing the need for the council to run its own tender process.

2.    A turnkey contractor will be procured to manage and deliver all the services required to deliver a HUG2 project. This is more efficient than the council managing multiple contracts and reduce the level of resource required from the council.

3.    Quality assurance will be provided by an organisation which is independent from the turnkey contractor. Auditing of ten percent of each property archetype will check for quality and any issues can be raised early in the project.

4.    The council will seek to work with local SME’s who can deliver the specialist retrofit services required, either as the turnkey contractor or as subcontractors to the turnkey contractor.