£1.6m project to make Oldham homes more energy efficient gets underway

Customers living in more than two hundred First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO)-owned homes are set to receive energy efficiency improvements, thanks to a new £1.6m investment project which launched this month.

The programme of green upgrades has been made possible thanks to a £1million grant from the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

We have also contributed £600k to the scheme, that will boost the performance of some of our least energy efficient homes across the borough.

Measures will be tailored to each property involved in the project and potential improvements include cavity wall, loft and party wall insulations; new windows and doors; and solar panels.

The work, which will be undertaken between now and March 2023, is set to bring homes up to a minimum of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C. In doing so, households could potentially see a 30% reduction on their energy bills and save a combined 225 tonnes of carbon per year going forward - that’s the equivalent of planting 9,000 trees a year to offset emissions.

Over the next five years we will be retrofitting energy efficiency measures to a further 3,800 homes to help us reach net zero carbon targets, tackle fuel poverty and ensure we provide warm, safe, sustainable places for our customers to live.

Steve Mather, our Director of Assets and Sustainability said: "This project is an important milestone in our sustainability journey and provides a blueprint for how we will improve the energy efficiency of many more of our homes. With rising utility bills and the increasing cost of living, helping customers to reduce energy use and save money is more important than ever.

"Housing providers have a unique opportunity to help reduce the country's carbon emissions to net zero. By upgrading social homes to be more energy efficient and finding greener ways of working we can make a significant difference to our customers and communities now and in years to come."