A MAJOR £3.6 million project to protect homes across Worcestershire from rising energy bills is being extended after the process got mired in bureaucracy.

Your Worcester News can reveal how the 'Green Deal' cash handed over from the Government last summer is having its deadline pushed back to June after concerns around how it is working.

Under the scheme, the Department for Energy and Climate Change invited councils to bid for cash to launch their own home insulation projects.

The money for Worcestershire is expected to benefit around 750 properties, focusing on "hard to treat" homes, such as older ones belonging to housing associations which have seen little investment in recent decades.

The fund is worth £88 million and large parts of the country have been handed nothing, with just 24 councils successful.

Labour Councillor Lynn Denham, who sits on Worcester City Council, wants the progress to be quicker.

Speaking during a full council meeting, she asked the Conservative leadership about the progress on the project.

"The funds were estimated to be sufficient to insulate 750 so called 'hard to treat homes'," she said.

"How much cash did this council receive and how many homes are being insulated in the city as a result, since the money had to be committed by the end of December (last year)?"

Councillor David Wilkinson, the cabinet member for safer and stronger communities, said the project was being managed by the county council, with the city playing a supporting role.

"Our involvement is to encourage and facilitate applications," he said.

He told the room 81 households had been identified for help so far, but that the timescale had been pushed back to June due to the complexities of the scheme, which bosses at County Hall are still working through.

Your Worcester News understands the main reason for the delay is due to securing agreements at County Hall with a third party provider, under the procurement process.

Last year the largest amount went to Cambridgeshire which got £7.8 million, while Bristol was awarded £7.2 million and Manchester £6.1 million in the three big winners.

The only other West Midlands conurbation to get anything apart from Worcestershire was Telford & Wrekin, which secured £4.8 million.

Several others ended up with smaller amounts like £1 million or just over £2 million.

As your Worcester News revealed yesterday, the city council has decided to earmark £10,000 from its new 2015/16 budget towards helping people save on energy.

Councillor Denham has already revealed how 5,384 people in Worcester are deemed to be in fuel poverty.

During the 2013/14 financial year 31 per cent of all requests for help from south Worcestershire's discretionary welfare fund were for energy bills, which meant more than £40,000 being dished out in vouchers.