£25m Plymouth investment helps British Gas meet new energy efficiency target four months early
A £25 million scheme delivered by British Gas across Plymouth to make homes warmer and to lower the cost of energy bills, has helped the company meet its Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) four months early.
The three year investment from British Gas to carry out energy efficiency measures across the city, is helping social housing tenants obtain heavily discounted solid wall insulation
Solid wall insulation reduces the amount of heat escaping through walls and helps homes heat up quicker and stay warmer over a longer period.
In addition, British Gas in partnership with Plymouth City Council and Plymouth Energy Community has offered energy makeovers to private homeowners, via a £4.2 million investment, to also install solid wall insulation at discounted rates to private home owners in the first cross community scheme of its type in the UK.
ECO is a Government scheme which requires energy companies to help improve the energy efficiency of people’s homes. Under the scheme British Gas is rolling out measures such as free loft and cavity wall insulation to those whose homes need it. Some households can also qualify for a free energy efficient boiler under the scheme.
Already more than 330,000 homes nationwide have benefited from energy efficiency measures installed free by British Gas under the scheme. Tens of thousands more people stand to benefit: the ECO scheme continues until 2017, so British Gas will carry on delivering measures to homes across the country.
During 2014, British Gas installed enough free loft insulation under ECO to cover the pitch at Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park stadium 256 times.
Forty-nine community insulation schemes have been completed nationwide, transforming the homes of thousands of social housing residents. Two of these schemes also include renewable bio-mass boiler community heating systems. These systems burn fast-growing, sustainable wood, to produce cost-effective and low-carbon heat.
In total, under ECO and earlier Government-led energy efficiency schemes, British Gas has installed more than 3.8 million energy efficiency measures in homes around the country, enabling households to benefit from energy efficient boilers, solid- and cavity-wall insulation and loft insulation.
Stephen Beynon, Managing Director, British Gas Residential Energy said: “We’re very pleased that we’ve met our first ECO target for insulating people’s homes in Plymouth and the rest of the UK-- and we’re pressing on to deliver the March 2017 target too. British Gas is offering free domestic loft and cavity wall insulation and free boilers to those who qualify.
We’ve had fantastic feedback from people in the city whose homes have been transformed through this scheme. It helps them manage their energy use and keep their bills down. Now is the time for people to think about making the most of these offers.
“We’re talking to local authorities and housing associations all over the country about how we can help regenerate communities through solid wall insulation and the renewable district heating scheme. We’re going to keep up the pace in our efforts to deliver insulation and heating measures to hundreds of thousands more British homes.”
