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No Green Living Grants paid in almost a year

Scheme to be amended to help people with the rising cost of living

No payments were made as part of the government's Green Living Grant scheme in the first ten months of the scheme.

Out of over 2,000 applicants, only 36 have been approved and had offer letters.

The scheme was initially launched in October last year to try and help the Island reach its target of carbon neutrality by 2050.

It's meant to provide financial assistance of up to £6,000 to help make residential properties more energy efficient.

It works in two parts - firstly a Manx Home Energy Audit (MHEA) is carried out on the house, which will assess whether or not it will benefit from the suggested work.

Anyone wanting to apply for the grant must complete this.

If approved, you can then apply for the grant itself if you meet certain criteria.

The household's income must be less than £112,000 a year, and have a rating between D-G on their audit report.

The Department of Enterprise says between applications opening on 1 October 2021 and 31 July this year, 1,881 applications for an MHEA were approved.

However, the figures reveal only 97 applications for the grant had been received by the 31 July.

Of those, 14 had been declined and only two had been approved with offer letters sent.

No applicants had submitted a final claim against an offer letter; therefore, no Green Living Grant payments had been made to that date, although the department says the total value of grants offered as of 16 September is now over £95,000 and four payments have been made in the last month.

Claire is one who'd applied for the Grant, but was told she wasn't eligible:

Government has now announced it's planning to amend the criteria of the Green Living Grant to help people improve their home's energy efficiency with a focus on reducing their bills during the rising cost of living.

Dr Alex Allinson is the treasury minister, and has been telling me more about how the grant is going to be changed:

The processing of these applications has been temporarily placed on hold while the new scope of the grant is defined.

The Department of Enterprise says it would not be appropriate to process these applications until the review is complete and a final policy direction is agreed.

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