Manchester City Council and housing provider One Manchester have successfully bid for £3.12m from the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation fund to retrofit 164 social homes to low carbon standards.
The project will support the Council’s ambition to become a zero-carbon city by 2038 carbon targets, and to improve its existing homes for its residents.
The funding was provided by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), following the announcement in the Chancellor’s Summer Economic Update in July 2020.
This £50 million grant programme will support social landlords to demonstrate innovative approaches to retrofitting social housing at scale. It will mean warmer and more energy efficient homes, a reduction in households’ energy bills, and lower carbon emissions.
The programme of work, designed by Constructive Thinking Studio, will take a step-by-step approach to a ‘Whole House Retrofit’ to improve airtightness and thermal insulation, while keeping disruption and costs to a minimum.
The works will include re-roofing, a holistic external insulation programme including window replacement, controlled ventilation with heat recovery and smart controls for new heating systems.
The project outline from One Manchester also plans for renewable energy systems to then be introduced as part of their sustainability measures over the coming years to achieve decarbonised housing in many of their homes.
Cllr Suzanne Richards, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, said: “Retrofitting older social and council housing is one of the key challenges we face as a city. Many of these homes do not meet modern energy efficiency expectations, but the options for retrofitting are extremely expensive to undertake at scale.
“Councils and housing associations can’t meet these costs alone but we know that bringing older homes up to modern efficiency standards is vital if we’re serious about meeting our target of become a zero-carbon city by 2038.
“That’s why it is such good news to have this first phase of funding confirmed so that we can begin working with our housing partners to tackle decarbonisation head-on. This will reap rewards not just for our climate but resident’s pockets too, with the money they will save on energy bills.”
