Council tenants in two villages to benefit from new heating systems

Rotherham Council has been awarded £117,504 for the improvement of 12 council homes in Ulley and Firbeck that are currently serviced by LPG (liquid petroleum gas), electricity and solid fuel heating systems.

The authority is one of 44 social housing projects across Great Britain awarded a share of £3.2m that will be used to get renewable heating into the homes of over 1,000 social housing tenants.

Rotherham secured 30 per cent of the funding - £35,760 - from the Energy Saving Trust to buy air source heat pumps and will also invest £81,744 of its own resources for the rest of the work. The pumps extract heat from outside air.

The project will improve the quality of life of council tenants by replacing costly and non-renewable energy technology in their council homes with heat pumps that will provide space and water heating to replace the solid fuel and LPG heating systems currently installed.

Councillor Rose McNeely said: “At a time of ever-increasing energy costs it will really cut down the risk of fuel poverty for these particular tenants.

“The sustainability of current heating solutions for people in rural areas is questionable and from an environmental point of view, their homes will be far ‘greener’. Carbon dioxide emissions from these properties will be significantly reduced and it will also increase our understanding of how mixed technology solutions are used by our tenants.”