The industry welcomed the government’s allocation of an extra £1.25bn to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

With match funding, the award will see around £2.5bn pumped into insulating or retrofitting 140,000 homes between 2025 and 2028.

Social housing contractors said the allocation provided all-important long-term certainty for businesses.

The Government announcement on how it intends to spend the £6bn first unveiled in 2022 Autumn spending statement, also saw an extra £1.5bn allocated to fund heat pump upgrades.

David Morgan, managing director of Wates Property Services said: “This is an important development that demonstrates the commitment Government has to improving the energy efficiency of social housing properties.

“Support like this is vital to our continued investment in innovation, skills, training and technology on the journey to net zero carbon.”

Derek Horrocks, chair of the National Home Decarbonisation Group, representing all the big social housing contractors, said: “This is something we called for and will give us that longer term to develop the area-based approach and use the economies of scale it affords.

“The past five years have seen more government investment in decarbonisation than ever before.

“Excellent progress has been made, with nearly 50% of properties in England now having an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of C – up from just 14% in 2010.

“The government has now committed to spend £12.6bn by 2028, a move that will genuinely make a difference to thousands.”