The £97m plan to bring energy bills down in social housing
Thousands of homes across Greater Manchester are set to save money on their bills thanks to a £97m package to make social housing more energy efficient. Improved insulation, air source heat pumps, solar panels, draught-proofing, ventilation and heating controls will be installed as part of the plans.
It comes as the city-region is granted £37m from the second round of the government's Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. A further £60m will be spent by local councils and housing associations towards the retrofit work.
Overall, 5,482 homes are set to benefit with the average annual energy bill coming down by £276.78 per household. The work, which should be finished by September 2025, is expected to save 26,895,921 kWh of energy per year.
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Most of the homes to benefit from the funding will be in Manchester where almost a third of properties are social housing. Labour councillor Gavin White said that a total of 3,129 homes in the city will benefit from this investment.
He said: "It's going to really help reduce carbon emissions, bring cheaper bills for our residents and in addition to the 1,600 homes in our own council housing stock, there's going to be a further 1,500 homes across the city with our partners Southway, One Manchester and Wythenshawe Community Housing Group. So in total 3,129 homes will get this investment for retrofitting – so lower fuel bills, lower carbon output and better housing for our residents."
In total, Manchester council will receive £11m towards retrofitting its housing stock. In addition to this, the local authority successfully bid for a further £10m in funding from the government's Home