Barnsley Council agrees £2.5m scheme for energy efficient upgrades to council properties

The plan is part of the government’s social housing de-carbonisation fund, of which Barnsley Council successfully bid for £1.7m.

BMBC will also contribute more than £830,000 to the scheme from its housing revenue account, bringing the total funding to £2.5m.

Council properties will be fitted with external wall insulation, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, underfloor insulation and room in roof insulation.

A competitive tender process will now begin to appoint a contractor to complete the works.

A further £500,000 has also been approved to help vulnerable residents with the cost of replacing gas boilers.

The funding was formally accepted during today’s (April 20) cabinet meeting.

Councillor Tim Cheetham, cabinet spokesperson for regeneration and culture, said: “The programme will take a fabric first approach to improving efficiency of the properties making those warmer and reducing energy use.

“The council and Bernslai Homes are developing a wider retrofit programme which will consider how we can improve the efficiency and reduce carbon emissions across all the stock.

“It’s £1000 a house in terms of grant funding from the government, it does begin to give you some idea of the scale of the spend that’s going to be required.

“It does need ramping up.”

Councillor Sir Steve Houghton CBE, leader : “Officials across South Yorkshire are looking at how we can improve the numbers on this significantly in the future.

“What we need to do is to keep pressing the government to ramp this up on a bigger scale, that’s the challenge.”