Residents of five tower blocks in Salford will benefit from improved heating systems, following a £2.2 million grant in Government funded which was secured by Salford housing association, Salix Homes.
Salix Homes owns more than eight thousand homes across Salford, including 21 Tower blocks. They have been awarded funding through the latest round of the Government’s Heat Network Efficiency Scheme (HNES).
The funding will support heating improvements at Nine Acre Court in Ordsall, Floral Court in Broughton and, Black Friar Court, Newbank Tower and Riverbank Tower in Trinity.
Altogether this funding will benefit more than 500 residents.
There will be improvements to the communal heating systems throughout the buildings, including work to plant rooms and pipework, improved insulation, and the replacement of heat interface units and heat metres within customers’ homes.
These improvements will reduce energy waste and enhance the overall efficiency of the heating systems across the buildings, while also supporting efforts to tackle fuel poverty by helping to reduce energy bills.
Salix Homes has now secured around £3.5million towards major heating improvements at eight of its 10 tower blocks with communal gas heating.
Improvements have already been made to communal heating systems at Magnolia Court, Sycamore Court and Mulberry Court in Pendleton.
David Malsom, Sustainability Manager at Salix Homes, said: “Securing a further £2.2million is fantastic news for our customers and represents another significant step forward in our work to improve the energy efficiency of our homes across Salford.
“This investment will enable us to modernise these older heating systems, making them more efficient and reliable, while reducing wasted energy and carbon emissions and helping to keep energy costs down for our customers”, he continued.
The tower blocks will be in line with the emerging industry standards towards energy performance and carbon reduction in housing, thanks to the investment.
Martin McCluskey, Minister for Local Energy and Jobs, added: “Clean power and clean heat benefits communities across our country. Building the infrastructure to deliver it is reindustrialising the UK and rolling out cutting-edge energy technology so families can benefit from lower bills, good jobs and energy security.
“For those already using heat networks, we are upgrading inefficient systems to make sure people get the high-quality, low-cost, reliable heating they deserve.”
Salix Homes has also recently secured £25,000 through the latest HNES funding round to carry out an optimisation study at Canon Hussey Court in Islington.
The study will take a detailed look at how the existing heating system is performing and identify where improvements could be made in the future, helping Salix Homes develop plans and support future funding bids.
These improvements are just one small part of investments from Salix Homes. Energy-efficient housing in Broughton is already underway with construction in progress. Find out more here.
