604 properties owned by Sunderland-based housing association Gentoo will see their energy performance enhanced, thanks to a successful funding bid to the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, which will allow the landlord to make homes warmer, more energy efficient and healthier places to live.
The £2.66m project – part-funded with £1.23m from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy – will see Gentoo homes energy efficiency ratings upgraded, with new double glazed windows, insulation and external wall insulation among the measures being put in place.
The scheme, which has been made possible thanks to funding secured via Sunderland City Council, will help Gentoo protect its tenants from the impact of growing fuel bills, ensuring its homes are thermally efficient and therefore cheaper to keep warm. It is part of a continued effort by Gentoo to shield its tenants from growing energy costs, building on a number of projects across the city that have improved the energy credentials of its housing stock, including the use of solar panels now in place on more than 6,000 of its properties.
Nigel Wilson, chief executive officer at Gentoo, said: “Gentoo is fully committed to supporting the carbon reduction targets set out by the Government and partners across Sunderland and I am delighted we have secured important grant funding that will enable us to help our tenants reduce their own carbon footprint, and to protect them from the rising cost of energy.
“The project, which we are pleased to have worked with the council on, will allow us to improve existing homes to ensure they are fit for the future, but more importantly, allow us to ensure the homes are more comfortable and warmer to live in for our tenants.”
The programme fits with Sunderland’s Low Carbon Framework – backed by the council, Gentoo and a range of organisations and businesses – which provides a high-level strategic framework for how Sunderland will play its part in lowering emissions to become carbon neutral by 2040. It focuses activity around seven strategic priorities, putting people at its heart – changing our behaviours, changing our organisational policies and practices, and setting out five thematic areas under which work will be taken forward. These focus on the built environment, green economy, low carbon energy generation and storage, consumption and waste, low carbon and active transport.
Councillor Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: “We’re delighted to be working shoulder to shoulder with Gentoo to take this important step to improve existing housing stock and make properties in the city greener.
“Our Low Carbon Framework sets out an ambitious plan to deliver a carbon neutral Sunderland by 2040, and it is through programmes and partnership-working like this that we can decarbonise the city, and help enable residents to live more sustainably, to ensure we all play our part in a greener future.
“We’re working to deliver more sustainable new communities across Sunderland, but the energy used in existing homes are a significant contributing factor to the city’s carbon footprint, and projects like this – that improve the energy credentials of older homes in Sunderland – will be critical to driving down emissions and ensuring the built environment supports our low carbon goals.”
