High hopes of boosting energy efficiency at Rugby council homes

The borough council is bidding for money to carry out work on more than a hundred properties in Long Lawford and Rokeby to make them cheaper and easier to heat.If the bid is successful, it will be used to carry out energy efficiency improvements to 112 Wimpey No-Fines properties.

These are from a well-regarded generation of property that was built across the country after the war – no-fines refers to the solid walls being made of concrete with no fine aggregates involved.

The project will aim to install external wall insulation. The work will be free of charge for the tenants, hopefully funded through a £1.09 million grant from the government’s social housing decarbonisation fund and match funding through the council’s climate change and home improvement reserves.

The aim is to maximise comfort and reduce energy use, while maximising the home’s suitability for low carbon heating in future.

A council spokesperson said: “The Wimpey No-Fines properties have been selected due to their low energy performance due to solid wall construction, along with their location in some of the more deprived neighbourhoods in the borough. Fuel poverty in Long Lawford is currently 19 per cent, and in Rokeby it is 20 per cent. This compares to a borough-wide average of 14.4 per cent and a national average of 13.2 per cent.”

If successful, the project will be delivered through a partnership with energy giant e.on.

Portfolio holder for this area of work, Cllr Emma Crane, added: “Completing this project will give some of our lower income residents healthier outcomes and warmer homes that will be cheaper to heat.

“The project also contributes towards the council’s climate change objectives as set out in the Corporate Strategy 2021-24, and particularly, the ambition to reduce the carbon footprint of the council’s housing stock by 2027.

“The improvements will help households reduce their heating demand, mitigating some of the effects of the current global energy crisis.”If the grant application is approved at the council’s cabinet meeting on January 9, the council hopes to hear if its bid has been successful by the end of March.

The work will have to be complete by the end of March 2025.