Hundreds of homes across Nottingham are to be transformed in a multi-million pound scheme to make them warmer and more energy efficient.
A total of £9m of Government cash is being pumped into the city to carry out a range of improvements in almost 700 social and private homes across Nottingham.
It's hoped the project will give residents warmer homes and lower energy bills.
It's part of a Government scene to upgrade 50,000 of the least energy efficient and fuel-poor homes with green improvements, reducing carbon emissions and supporting thousands of green jobs across the country.
In Nottingham, one scheme will see wall, roof and floor insulation installed at 104 Nottingham City Homes properties in the Hoten Road area of Colwick which currently suffer from draughts, damp and mould. This work will be carried out by this December.
A further 40 private homes and 50 more council homes in the city will benefit from state of the art measures – which will be carried out along the lines of the Energiesprong methods used to transform homes in Sneinton.
It will also pay for 500 owner occupied homes across the city to receive fully-funded solar panel installations.
It's hoped some of the schemes will result in annual energy bill savings of £277,050.
City Council Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Energy and Environment, Councillor Sally Longford, said: “Whole-home refits like this make an enormous difference to how much people can enjoy their own homes, feeling warm and comfortable, in the knowledge that their bills have been drastically cut.
“We’ve seen this with our Energiesprong homes in Sneinton, which have gone from being draughty properties with high energy bills, to being net zero carbon houses which are warmer and cheaper for residents.
"I’m really pleased we have managed to secure this vital funding from Government and are ready to crack on and get this work started and one of the projects finished before the end of the year – another step towards carbon neutrality by 2028.”
Nottingham City Council secured £9m in Government grants for the scheme, with the rest of the 12.3m budget provided through a fund of accumulated rental income from Nottingham City Homes (NCH) tenants.
Head of Energy Services at the city council, Wayne Bexton, said: “Now more than ever we need to tackle fuel poverty to ensure people live in warm, energy efficient homes that prevent illness and reduce carbon emissions. Securing these funds for Nottingham will help us continue to deliver innovative retrofit solutions, directly aligned with achieving our carbon neutral aspirations."
It comes after the Government announced £562m from its Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator and Green Homes Grant funds to go to councils across England and Scotland.
Nick Murphy, Chief Executive at Nottingham City Homes, said: “Our joint retrofit schemes have been very successful and it’s great news that we now have the funding to improve more homes across the city, as well as helping fight climate change and tackling fuel poverty.
“It’s important that we insulate our homes and make them more energy efficient for the future. Residents have told us they have seen a real difference – making their homes warmer and cheaper to run.”
