Jigsaw Homes Group has secured more than £1.7m to upgrade hundreds of homes throughout Greater Manchester and the East Midlands and improve their energy performance.
The funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund via the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Midlands Energy Hub will be used to update around 330 properties that currently fall below Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating C.
This will include providing internal or external insulation and in some cases high retention storage heaters to create warmer homes, help residents to reduce fuel bills and significantly lower carbon emissions.
As one of the largest housing providers in England with more than 35,000 homes in the North West and East Midlands, the Group is committed to delivering more sustainable housing and has already begun projects to improve the energy efficiency of its homes.
A pilot project in the East Midlands has enabled Air Source Heat Pumps to be successfully installed in 80 properties. And following a successful bid from the ECO innovation fund, properties here can also now be fitted with a 6kw solar panel system.
Jigsaw is also making significant improvements to homes within Greater Manchester with a £4million investment programme underway to improve external installation and provide new windows and doors in some of its tower blocks.
Andy Marshall, Group Director of Asset Management at Jigsaw Homes said: “We are working hard to upgrade our properties and make them more energy efficient but at the heart of this we want to continue to make sure our buildings are safe and warm for our residents.
“We are committed to cutting our carbon emissions as part of our sustainability strategy and our bid to reach net zero carbon by 2050 so funding like this with support from GMCA and Midlands Energy Hub is vital.”
