The £50 million Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF)
Demonstrator Project is now open for bids from local authorities to
demonstrate innovative approaches to retrofitting social housing at
scale. The SHDF Demonstrator upscales the previous Whole
House Retrofit (WHR) Innovation Competition.
The SHDF Demonstrator project was first announced in
July 2020 and is intended to be an initial investment to
learn lessons and catalyse innovation in retrofitting for a wider
£3.8billion Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
The competition is open to applications from local authorities
including combined authorities, or from consortia led by local
authorities for work on their own retained social housing stock
and/or housing association or arm's length management organisations
(ALMO) stock.
Timescales for preparation and submissions of bids under the
SHDF Demonstrator project are extremely tight and allow for little
or no time for consultation with tenants. Expressions of interest
in submitting bids for funding under the SHDF Demonstrator project
must be submitted by 5pm Friday 16 October 2020 - there is no
requirement to confirm consortia or give an outline bid at that
stage.
Detailed bids will need to be submitted by 5pm Thursday 12
November 2020.
Full details, including application guidance, a required
memorandum of understanding, application form and competition
workbook and finance forms are available on the SHDF webpage on the Department of
Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) website.
Successful bidders will be required to submit formal monthly
project reports to BEIS and a final financial and narrative report
on the installation phase of the projects within 30 days of the end
of the project and no later than the end of December 2021.
BEIS are providing an opportunity for interested local
authorities to network and build connections and to facilitate
engagement between interested parties and have set up a private
LinkedIn group -
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8981809/ which interested
local authorities can join if they wish to. The purpose is to
share contact details and make connections rather than a place for
discussion but BEIS will use this platform for any updates, in
addition to emailing and the SHDF webpage.