London mayor hatches plan to help pay for energy efficient homes
Sponsors to fund housing
Corporate giants sponsoring the London 2012 Olympic Games could be asked to pay for the capital’s homes to become more energy efficient.
The Greater London Authority will set out a wish list of projects that sponsors such as EDF, BP and BT will be asked to support. Many sponsors choose to invest in host cities in the years leading up to and following the Olympics as part of their sponsorship deals.
Isabel Dedring, the mayor’s sustainability advisor, said home energy efficiency schemes could be on the list.
Meanwhile, the GLA plans to hand out £15.5 million of grants to London boroughs to test ways of paying for home energy efficiency upgrades. The first wave of pilots is taking place in Croydon, Southwark and Hillingdon covering 250 homes each.
This will be followed by five more pilots of 1,000 homes each in October testing both the energy efficiency measures and ways of funding upgrades for householders, and finally bigger schemes of around 2000 homes each in 2010/11 with the idea of rolling the programme out across London in 2011/12.
Ms Dedring said: ‘We are testing the consumer acceptability of it.’
Ideas to be tested include low-cost or interest-free loans from councils or banks to householders to pay for upgrades. The cost of the loans would be repaid through the savings in their energy bills.
The scheme could also look at utility firms adding the cost of the improvements onto energy bills.
The grants will be matched with money from councils.
The news emerged as London mayor Boris Johnson announced that 10 London boroughs will share a £3 million pot to create low carbon neighbourhoods. The money will fund projects including low-cost insulation and ‘energy doctors’ to advise more energy efficient measures.
The 10 areas are Barking town centre, Muswell Hill, Archway, Brixton, Lewisham town centre, Wandle Valley, Ham and Petersham, Peckham, Hackbridge and Queen’s Park.
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