A major milestone has been passed as energy saving home upgrades have now been made to over 1,000 social homes across Greater Manchester, helping make them warmer, cheaper to heat and less harmful to the environment.
The 1,000th home to receive improvements is managed by Six Town Housing in Bury. The property is now benefiting from a variety of measures, including cavity wall insultation, loft insultation and an insulated loft hatch, smart ventilation to tackle damp and mould, LED lighting, roof-mounted solar PV, and battery storage, all helping ensure residents have a warm and comfortable home.
Ms Hollerbach, tenant at the 1,000th property to be upgraded, said: “I have noticed how much warmer and more comfortable my home is since they installed the insulation and solar panels, including how much less I am spending on my gas and electricity.”
Over 6,300 social homes in total across Greater Manchester are receiving energy efficiency improvements through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, after the city-region was granted £45m from the first two waves of the fund. The Government funding — granted by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero — is in addition to a further £68m match funding from partners.
The progress of these works was highlighted at a meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on 15th December with the numerous long-term benefits of this and other carbon reduction schemes set-out.
These works will lead to estimated benefits including:
- Annual energy savings of 30,973,737 kWh for the city-region
- Average annual bill saving of £276.78 per home
- Over 3,500 jobs and 60 apprentices supported in Greater Manchester
Six Town Housing are one of 19 Housing Provider partners of the GMCA-led consortium working on the Social Housing Decarbonisation programme. All homes will be completed by September 2025, with improvements being made to social housing in every district of Greater Manchester.
Cllr Tom Ross, GMCA Lead for the Green City Region, said: “Reducing the amount of energy used in our homes will be key to achieving our long-term environmental vision of being a carbon-neutral city-region by 2038. Prioritising improvements to our social homes will help ensure some of the families most in need in Greater Manchester will benefit from our push to make the city-region a greener and fairer place for all, whilst also supporting the growth of the vitally needed retrofit employment sector.
“That we have managed to make improvements to over 1,000 properties right across Greater Manchester is excellent news — these measures don’t just benefit our environment, they also reduce the costs of heating and lighting homes, which is something that now more than ever residents are desperately concerned about.”
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