Warm homes and lower energy bills for tenants have combined with lower carbon emissions from social housing managed by Ashden Award finalist Northwards Housing in Manchester.

The company has gone well beyond the minimum standards of energy efficiency required by the Decent Homes programme which is designed to lift people out of fuel poverty. It has taken a ‘whole house’ approach and included a lot of hard-to-treat properties with solid walls.

“We’ve had a big drop in bills, £80 per quarter, as we used to have storage heaters and immersion heaters,” says Charlotte Grant, chair of the Moorways Courts tenants association.

Over 9,000 of Northwards Housing’s 12,500 homes have had renovations that improve energy efficiency. They address all aspects of insulation and energy use. More than 200 hard-to-treat homes have had a full refurb including external wall insulation, double glazing, new doors and an A-rated boiler.

The programme, which minimised costs by combining energy efficiency work with other renovations, has significant scope for renovation by other social housing organisations.

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