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£500,000 to make Whitehill Bordon homes more energy efficient

Thursday 4th of February 2010

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Whitehill Bordon has been awarded a grant of up to £500,000 to retrofit existing privately owned homes - so they will be more energy efficient as well as saving households money on fuel bills.

East Hampshire District Council applied to the Department of Energy and Climate Change at the end of last year to become one of the communities in the Low Carbon Communities Challenge.

Whitehill Bordon was assessed on Monday (January 25) by Matt Dickinson from the Building Research Establishment.

And the town has now been selected to be part of the scheme.

The council plans to use this to create interest free loans of up to £10,000 to retrofit homes.

A key feature of these loans is that repayments plus the household fuel bills must be lower that what the homeowner would originally have spent on fuel bills.

The repayment period can therefore be up to 25 years.

It is envisaged that people on income or disability related benefits would not necessarily incur monthly repayments and the loan would be repaid on sale or transfer of the property. This will increase disposable household income.

At current energy prices, households which have been retrofitted could save up to £645 a year on fuel bills and nearly 3.5 tonnes of carbon per household every year.

Some of the energy-saving measures could include solar hot water, boiler upgrades, insulating solid walls, double glazing and heat pumps.

Cllr Andrew Joy, Portfolio Holder for Whitehill Bordon, said: "It is fantastic that we are now part of this challenge.

"This will ensure that existing residents and new residents will both be able to save money on their fuel bills as well as reducing their carbon emissions.

"This is the start of a progressive plan to give all current residents the option to retrofit their homes."

Energy and Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock said: "The huge enthusiasm for the Low Carbon Communities Challenge demonstrates that local people are passionate about building a low carbon future in the UK.

"Today's winners will act as a test bed for green action, and show us all what a greener future looks like.

"This sort of action is vital because over a quarter of the UK 's greenhouse gas emissions come from heating, lighting and powering electrical appliances in our homes.

"By 2050 this needs to be almost zero and we can only achieve that through the creative initiative of local communities."