Hundreds more Oldham households to benefit from energy efficiency improvements

Housing association First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO) has secured £2.4m from wave two of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) and committed a further £3m to improve the energy efficiency of hundreds more local homes over the next two years.

The social landlord will use the money to deliver green upgrades to more than 350 social homes that have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating below C, representing the third largest SHDF programme across Greater Manchester.

In doing so, FCHO will help customers to reduce their energy consumption, heat their homes for less and stay warmer for longer.

The retrofit project will see a range of measures installed at customers’ homes including triple glazed windows and doors; cavity and wall insulation; along with solar PV panels and air source heat pumps which will replace existing heating and hot water systems.

Energy efficient lighting; replacement roofs and other improvements are also planned to make sure homes are fit for the future.

Work is due to start next month and will be completed by March 2025.

The programme bolsters FCHO’s continued efforts to tackle climate change in its neighbourhoods and create cleaner, greener communities.

Since 2021 the housing provider has improved the energy performance of more than 200 homes and has built 221 new build homes to EPC level B or above.

An initial retrofit pilot in 2021 brought selected properties across the borough up to EPC B, from rating D or E, with modifications predicted to save customers c. £400 per year on energy bills.

Last year, FCHO was awarded £1m funding from SHDF wave one and contributed £600k to retrofit 200 FCHO-owned homes with energy saving technologies.

The work is being delivered by contractor partner, Connolly and is set to help cut customers’ gas and/or electric bills by up to a third.

The programme got underway in January this year and is due for completion in the summer.

Steve Mather, FCHO Director of Assets and Sustainability, said: “With rising utility bills and the increasing cost of living, helping customers to reduce energy use and save money is more important than ever.

“We’re thrilled to have secured this second tranche of government funding as we look to keep on improving the energy efficiency of our homes to tackle climate change as well as help customers to save money, reduce fuel poverty, future proof homes, boost the economy and create green jobs.

“The grant, combined with our investment will move us closer to our target of retrofitting energy efficiency measures to a significant proportion of homes by 2030 and achieving our net zero carbon targets.”

FCHO is among 18 social housing providers across Greater Manchester to be awarded SHDF wave two money from a collaborative bid led by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA).

The consortium was awarded £37m to improve the energy efficiency of 5,482 homes across the city region, and member organisations have committed a further £60m of their own funding towards the project to make it a success. 

Cllr Martyn Cox, GMCA lead for the Green City Region and Waste and Recycling, 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.

“These measures will not just benefit our environment – they will reduce the costs of heating and lighting homes something that, now more than ever, residents are desperately concerned about.”

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