Stroud District Council (SDC) has been awarded a government grant of £1.7million to boost the energy efficiency of 250 council homes.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero funding aims to cut tenants' energy bills and carbon emissions while boosting the green economy and improving tenant health and wellbeing.

SDC led a consortium bid with Cheltenham Borough Homes, Two Rivers Housing and Gloucester City Homes which will cover external wall insulation, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, ventilation upgrades and window replacements.

Termed the 'Security and Net Zero Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.1' (SHDF), the work meets part of the council's decarbonisation strategy and follows retrofit work which has now been completed at Hamfallow Court.

The total SHDF award is £1.7million towards costs predicted by SDC at £4.3m – meaning SDC will pick up the tab for £2.6m.

An SDC spokesman said: "This Gloucestershire-wide energy performance improvement project will mean warm, energy-efficient homes for tenants and reduce carbon emissions through improvements to 532 properties across which currently have the lowest energy performance in our social housing stock.

To date, SDC has been successful in all three of its bids under SHDF, totalling £3.9million of central funding. This month, SDC also revealed it was one of the shortlisted seven Housing Providers, in the category of Best Local Authority or Social Housing Retrofit Programme, at the Retrofit Academy annual awards.

The work was for the SHDF Demonstrator project undertaken at Hamfallow Court. SDC was specifically mentioned and highly commended for its work in delivering outstanding value for money, clear scalability and high-quality client leadership.

"This achievement is also a recognition not just for the work delivering the demonstrator but for the focus and professionalism across the whole area, including applying for and delivering the subsequent phases of the SHDF programmes."