Berwick Borough Housing wins green contract

Berwick Borough Housing who are part of the Four Housing Group, has won a contract to refit existing social housing with low-carbon solutions.

They entered the ‘Retrofit for the Future’ competition, run by the government-backed Technology Strategy Board. Retrofit for the Future is a £3.5million project that will be shared nationally in two phases. Berwick Borough Housing has been awarded £18,000 in the first phase. And if they are successful, they will be awarded £150,000 in phase two.

Along with over 180 other like-minded organisations, the plan is to work towards making big changes that will reduce carbon emissions produced by social housing.

Neil Brown, managing director of Berwick Borough Housing said: “We’re delighted to be part of the Retrofit for the Future projects. If we are awarded the money in phase two, it will go some way in letting us cover off things like monitoring, design, development and installation.

“We are currently undertaking our Decent Homes programme with a completion date of March 2013. This will provide comfortable housing with the added opportunity to apply some aspects of ‘green solutions’, including smart metering, insulation & alternative heat source.”

A third of Berwick Borough Housing homes are located in rural areas, many of which have no gas supply and lend themselves to solutions which include micro-renewable energy installations and innovative insulation techniques.

Housing in the UK accounts for 27 per cent of carbon emissions and more than 60 per cent of the houses that will be occupied by 2050 have already been built. To meet the UK’s target of an 80 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, improving the performance of existing housing is essential.