'My bills are lower and I'm warmer in energy efficient home'

One in four households in Northern Ireland are living in fuel poverty, with 179,000 households spending at least 10% of their income on energy bills.

To try to ease that financial burden, a new scheme aims to fund energy efficient upgrades to low-income households.

Trevor Rainey has already benefited from a similar scheme with his Housing Executive home fitted with solar panels, a heat pump, insulation and new energy efficient doors and windows.

"Since the work was done my bills are a lot lower, the house is warmer and the hot water is great in the mornings," he said.

The Warm Healthy Homes Strategy is a 10-year plan and hopes to secure £150m across five years for a new fund to pay for energy efficient upgrades to low income households.

The Department for Communities' (DfC) strategy will also introduce minimum energy efficiency targets for rental properties, and increase the decent homes standard to which social housing is built.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said the investment was an essential step in combating fuel poverty.

Officials said Rainey's home was the model for the scheme, with whole-house renovations aimed at lifting households clear of fuel poverty, rather than piecemeal upgrades to one aspect of a house seen in previous schemes.

These upgrades do not come cheap, the work done to Rainey's house cost about £35,000.

For who, how many and how much?

The scheme's ambition can't be faulted.

How many houses will actually see the benefits, is another question.

The DfC said the fund would cost £150m across five years.

With huge pressure on Stormont's public finances and an impasse over the multi-year budget, where this money would come from is far from settled.

The initiative has no target number for home renovations against which the success of the scheme could be measured.

Officials acknowledge that the average cost per home renovation will be higher than in previous schemes, but weren't able to produce an average figure due to the differences between different types of home.

'Transform low-income households'

Speaking at the fund's announcement on Thursday, Lyons said the fund would "transform low-income households, modernising energy inefficient homes".

"Through this fund, along with energy well-being advice from trusted partners in the community, I want to ensure those worst affected have the information and means to upgrade their homes for the better," he added.

Not all aspects of the scheme are about upgrading homes themselves.

In a bid to improve transparency, the minister has committed to making an annual statement providing an update on the scheme's progress, as well as new publications on incidence of household damp and personal experiences of fuel poverty.