Social housing providers are being urged to compete for access to £42.5 million of EU funding to boost England's retrofit technology including heat pumps.
Social housing providers, councils and energy agencies can form consortias to compete to deliver programmes that will see the distribution of the European Regional Development Fund cash to technology, construction and supply firms.

When matched with funding from the consortias, the investment would go towards the retrofit of homes and can help businesses develop retrofit technology such as ground source heat pumps.

The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWRDA) and the South West of England Regional Development Agency(SWERDA) have begun a procurement process for programmes that can invest millions into generating business for small retrofit-related firms.

NWRDA has earmarked more than £20 million to allocate to a programme and has called for expressions of interest from housing associations. SWERDA is also launching expressions of interest from organisations that can form consortia to set up a £22.5 million stimulus programme for retrofit supply and construction companies in the south west.