Home Comforts The Results

If you would like to be in touch with the team to find out more, please fill in the contact form found here.

What the Buildings Team is doing:

Helping to make Charlbury’s homes low-carbon, cheaper to run, warm in winter and cool in summer.

Why we are here: Helping to reduce the costs and carbon associated with heating our buildings

Rising energy bills are a worry for us all. Meeting the UK’s climate change targets needs action on all fronts. Improving our homes and community buildings can help to reduce costs and reduce carbon emissions:

• 60% of Oxfordshire’s homes have an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) rating of D or lower[i] meaning that they are very inefficient
• About a fifth of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from homes, the vast majority from heating and cooking[ii]

The Buildings Working Group is aiming for Charlbury’s buildings to be energy-efficient and heated and powered by entirely by low carbon technologies, and for new developments to have low embodied carbon. Progress needs to be made urgently.

We are aiming to rollout energy efficiency solutions in Charlbury’s existing buildings and new developments by 2030, along with the installation of low-carbon heating technologies. To achieve this, we need to engage with Charlbury builders who will play a key role in delivering buildings that are warm in winter, cool in summer, and cost less to run.

Our ambition is in line with various local and national net zero frameworks including Pathways to Zero Carbon Oxfordshire, OxLEP’s Oxfordshire Energy Strategy, and the government’s Net Zero Strategy.

What’s the group doing now?

• Giving advice on what financial incentives and support are available 
• Working with local authorities to influence local planning policy and get support for our strategy

Engage with us

• Would you like to know more about how you can make your home or building more energy efficient?
• Have you already made your home more energy-efficient and climate friendly, and would like to share your experience?
• Are you a builder that wants to engage with the town council’s aims for better quality buildings?

Contact Lisa Wilkinson in the first instance on 07311 259412 or clerk@charlbury-tc.gov.uk

What financial help is available now?

For homeowners & residents

Available to everyone: Boiler upgrade scheme:  £5,000 off the cost and installation of an air source heat pump, £5,000 off the cost and installation of a biomass boiler, £6,000 off the cost and installation of a ground source heat pump Any homeowner or owner of a small-scale commercial property can apply for a grant towards the cost of replacing a traditional boiler with a low carbon alternative.  Larger grants are available for lower income households

For homeowners in receipt of a means-tested benefit: West Oxfordshire’s Fuel Poverty Grant: A £1,000 grant is available to West Oxfordshire residents for measures to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Eligible homeowners must be in receipt of a means-tested benefit. Residents who think they may be eligible for the Fuel Poverty Grant should contact NEF on the free phone number 0800 107 0044 which is open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays).

For some homeowners: ECO4: Aimed at supporting vulnerable households to reduce fuel poverty. Funding can be applied for via Better Housing, Better Health https://www.bhbh.org.uk

For some homeowners: Welcome the Warmth. Provides households with measures such as insulation, air source heat pumps and solar panels.
The grant programme can provide a range of fully-funded energy efficiency upgrades and low-carbon heating to qualifying off-gas homes, up to the value of £38,000. Eligible households should:

• have a combined income of less than £39,000
• have a home with an energy performance rating of D or lower
• not use gas as the main source of heating

If your home does not have an Energy Performance Certificate, please still apply as a free survey will be completed as part of the application process. Households with a joint income above £31,000 could also still qualify in some circumstances and can contact retrofit@oxfordshire.gov.uk for details.

More information can be found here: https://www.welcomethewarmth.org.uk/

What advice is available now?

Better Housing, Better Health:, a service supported by Oxfordshire County Council aiming to reduce the number of people in fuel poverty and provides access to impartial energy advice and free home energy visit

Cosy Homes Oxfordshire: a project set up with UK Government funding to provide homeowners and landlords advice on how to carry out energy-efficiency improvements to their homes.

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[i] Pathways to a Zero Carbon Oxfordshire (Pazco) https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/publications/downloads/PazCo-final.pdf

[ii] BEIS 2021 UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Provisional Figures https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1064923/2021-provisional-emissions-statistics-report.pdf

The Formal Bit ……………….

Objectives of the Building Team:

1. To encourage the high quality retrofit of local community buildings and homes to become low energy and zero carbon.
2. To engage with the planning system to maintain the town’s character while helping it thrive and achieve net zero emissions.
3. To engage residents in understanding what a zero-carbon home might mean and how to make that happen
4. To enthuse local builders in understanding how they can help make that happen.
5. To engage local building trades and seek to facilitate training.
6. To identify potential partners to plan and assist with mass retrofit.

Buildings Team Terms of Reference