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 Celebrating successes
There's a lot to celebrate amongst our grant recipients this month with both the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) and Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) schemes.
If you're delivering works through these schemes and would like to share your achievements, please reach out to us at learningcomms@salixfinance.co.uk so we can highlight and celebrate them within our community.
Residents reap the rewards of the Home Upgrade Grant 🏡
Meet Kenneth, a homeowner who has transformed his home thanks to the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) scheme.
Celebrating the Reed Mere estate retrofit
Lincolnshire Housing Partnership (LHP) has wrapped up a transformative project at Reed Mere Estate, upgrading 292 homes with top-tier energy efficiency improvements. Backed by an ÂŁ8 million SHDF grant and matched by LHP to a total of ÂŁ16 million, the initiative was completed alongside E.ON and Thrift Energy.
Project highlights include:
- 52,800m² of external wall insulation
- ÂŁ84,680 in annual energy savings
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257 tonnes of COâ‚‚ saved annually
A short video, produced by Thrift Energy and shared on LinkedIn, celebrates the role of projects like this in making homes warmer, more efficient and sustainable.
Watch the video on LinkedIn today.
Salix story spotlight: 500 home milestone in East Midlands
 Pictured: Alison Rees lives in the 500th home to have works completed. Image credit: Beth Walsh Photography.
An ambitious project to upgrade insulation in hundreds of homes in North East Derbyshire is celebrating a milestone achievement with measures in 500 homes now complete.
Upgrades were made possible thanks to the government's Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. The homes will now provide warmer and more comfortable living environments for people and families ahead of the cooler winter months.
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Celebrate your success by hosting a site visit
A site visit is an exciting opportunity to showcase your project, discuss challenges, opportunities and celebrate successful outcomes for your residents.
By inviting our teams to join you on site, we're able to work with you to create fantastic content such as case studies and news stories that will not only highlight your organisation, but also help others to deliver successful projects in the future.
If you're interested in hosting us, please complete the short form on our website and one of our team will be in touch to arrange next steps.
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 Important reminder: upcoming data submission deadlines
Just a quick reminder about the upcoming data submission deadlines. Staying on top of these helps us track progress and keep everything running smoothly and there're only two more drawdown opportunities left before SHDF Wave 2 grant funding ends in March 2025.
Deadline to submit report:
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Friday 13 December 2024 (this is also the deadline for SHDF Wave 2 drawdowns for payment in February 2025)
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Wednesday 15 January 2025 (this is also the deadline for SHDF Wave 2 drawdowns for payment in March 2025)
We strongly recommend marking these dates in your calendar to ensure you don't forget.
Tip for SHDF Wave 2.1: If you've finished properties but haven’t yet entered measure details in the DMS, now’s the time. The measures you report give us a more accurate picture of your progress and successes and form part of the SHDF statistics published on gov.uk, so don’t wait until the end of the scheme to report on them.
Remember that the light green cells of the “property details” and “measure details” tabs should be completed during delivery as measures are installed and homes are completed. Yellow cells should be completed where the data is available.
Once a measure has been installed, grant recipients should ensure that columns “L” and “M” (date of installation) are complete as only measures with a completion date will be included in SHDF statistics published on gov.uk.
You do not need Trustmark lodgement details to record your measures, but once you have access to Trustmark lodgement details, you can start populating this into the data report; we would recommend not leaving this task until the end of the scheme. Remember, the key asks for this activity can be found in the property details tab - postcode (column “E”), unique property reference number (column “F”) and the measure details tab -eligible measure type (column “C”), Trustmark unique measure reference (column “K”) and data of completing installation (column “M”).
Please raise any questions regarding this with your SPOC in the first instance.
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SHDF Wave 2.1 reasonable assurance reports
It is a condition of SHDF Wave 2 grant funding that grant recipients submit a reasonable assurance report within six months of the end of each financial year. This requires grant recipients to ensure their annual accounts are audited by an independent and appropriate qualified auditor and ensure that the auditor’s reasonable assurance report (schedule 1 of the grant offer letter) is shared with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Reasonable assurance reports for financial year 23/24 on Wave 2.1 were due in September 2024, so if you haven’t yet submitted, it is now overdue. Please send it to shdfwave2.1@beis.gov.uk as soon as possible.
Further details on the report can be found in section 8 of the GFA and schedule 1 of the grant offer letter.
If there are any issues or queries, please discuss with your SPOC in the first instance.
Extended deadline SHDF project confidence questionnaire
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to complete our project confidence questionnaire.
Responses are being collected as a part of our continued focus on supporting you with maximising the delivery of projects receiving funding through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.1 and Wave 2.2.
By sharing details about these requirements, you are helping us to better support you to ensure successful delivery of your projects and maximising benefits for your residents.
To ensure we receive as many responses as possible, we're extending the deadline for participation to COP Friday 29 November.
Completing the survey should take no longer than 20 minutes. To answer questions, you will need information regarding your current and forecast performance to hand, as well as information on key blockers your project may be facing.
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Preparing for project closure: share your insights
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Automated Batch System (ABS) extension
As mentioned in previous communications from the Department and our teams at Salix, the ABS deadline will be extended to Friday 31 January 2025 to allow for more batches to be submitted ahead of scheme closure.
The last date for batch amendments will be Friday 7 March 2025, with further information to be communicated in due course.
Plus, don't forget about these useful automated batch system (ABS) resources:
Holiday closure dates 2024
Please kindly note the following dates for the ABS:
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Friday 13 December: deadline to ensure batches will be included in the December payment cycle
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Friday 20 December: payment deadline
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Monday 6 January: assessment window formally reopens
Batches can be submitted between Friday 20 December and Monday 6 January. However, there may be a delay in turnaround times for emails from the HUG2Assessments@arup.com inbox and batch outcomes for batches submitted during this period.
Batch assessments will formally begin upon the teams return on Monday 6 January.
Thank you in advance for your patience, we wish you a happy holiday season ahead.
Battery storage updates
As mentioned in a letter issued by the department earlier this month, we will not be able to accept battery storage as a measure under HUG2.
We have been awaiting an update to the methodology that calculates Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating (known as RdSAP) to enable battery storage to be installed as an eligible measure under the scheme. The rollout of the updated version of the EPC methodology (RdSAP10) has been delayed. While the team at the department who lead on RdSAP are working hard with Building Research Establishment (BRE) and industry to deliver the update as soon as possible, it is now not expected to be launched until early 2025. This is too late to integrate into the scheme.
We understand that this will be disappointing news for grant recipients and households alike. However, it may be possible to install battery storage under the Warm Homes: Local Grant, which starts delivery in 2025.
Further details on the Warm Homes: Local Grant, including on the retreatment policy, are available on the government website.
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Fraud risk assessments
Thanks to those who attended our session on supporting fraud risk assessment (FRA) submissions last month.
The session was tailored to grant recipients actively delivering SHDF Wave 2.2 projects, guiding them through the essential requirements of FRA submissions.
Watch the recording via our YouTube.
You're invited: fraud fundamentals – expert tips and strategies
Join us online via Microsoft Teams from 2pm to 3pm on Thursday 5 December to discuss practical insights and real-life examples of effective fraud risk management.
The session, led by Warm Homes Programme Manager at South Norfolk and Broadland District Councils Chris Bailey, will support participants to come away with actionable approaches to strengthen both internal and cross-functional fraud defences.
Alongside acting as an opportunity to ask questions, collaborate and discuss the topic, Chris will share proven strategies for identifying, categorising and managing fraud and key lessons that can be applied across all grant schemes.
Read more and register to attend.
Recap: navigating real-time challenges: focus on Building Safety Regulations (BSR) gateway 1​ and 2
Thanks to those who attended our session on Thursday 7 November to discuss the implementation of the new BSR gateway process for high-rise towers.
The session focused on the challenges and strategies associated with the new BSR and the gateway process for high-rise towers.
Special thanks to Michael McGowan, Kieran Cooper, John Heaney and Ciaran Gallen for their expert contributions.
For any attendees or others interested in discussing the process and sharing or requesting insights, you are welcome to reach out to the speakers directly via the contact details below:
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Tackling poor-quality property data: how are you ensuring Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) accuracy?
In an era where property data is more critical than ever, maintaining the quality and reliability of EPC processes can be challenging. Poor-quality property data can lead to inaccurate assessments, affecting everything from energy efficiency planning to grant eligibility.
We want to know how you’re ensuring your data is accurate, whether you have contingency plans in place for unexpected setbacks and more.
Your insights and strategies are vital as we work together to improve data standards and drive positive change across the housing sector.
We hope you found this email useful
We’ve sent you this message because the delivery partner’s/our system suggests you are a contact for a Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund or Home Upgrade Grant project.
If this is correct, you don’t need to do anything else and can stop reading.
However, if you believe this email has been sent in error or you are no longer involved in the delivery of project(s) funded through these schemes, contact your SPOC.
Please ask them to amend your details in the database and/or add the correct contact details.
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