Welsh Government has announced a new £9.5 million social housing retrofit programme to cut energy bills, tackle fuel poverty and shrink housing’s carbon footprint.

Optimised Retrofit Programme’s (ORP) funding will support the fitting of energy efficiency measures in up to 1,000 existing homes owned by social landlords and councils.

The programme will also include a competition to support the trial of innovative new solutions for retrofitting housing.

The knowledge gained will help all those living in social homes to benefit from reduced energy bills and warmer, more efficient homes.

Julie James, Minister for Housing and Local Government, said: “Housing is responsible for 27% of all energy consumed in Wales and 15% of all demand-side greenhouse gas emissions.

“While we have plans in place to ensure new homes are heated and powered only from clean energy sources, ensuring our existing housing stock is as energy efficient as possible is vital to if we are to meet our ambitious target of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 95% by 2050.”

ORP is part of the £45 million Innovative Housing Programme announced earlier this year, which focuses on building new carbon-neutral homes using modern methods of construction.