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Energy Efficiency Scheme Does Freebridge Homes a Power of Good

Energy firm, Southern Electric, will help Freebridge tenants to create lifetime savings of more than 21,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, thanks to work carried out in the last two years alone to make their homes more energy efficient.

Southern Electric now marks its fifth year of supporting Freebridge Community Housing - and previously the former landlord, the Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk - with continued grant funding to improve housing stock.  Southern Electric’s managing agent Sustain Ltd has engaged with both organisations during the last five years. Throughout this period over £850,000 has been given to the two organisations to help them make homes more comfortable and energy efficient.

In the last year alone, for instance, nearly 100 Freebridge homes have benefited from cavity wall insulation, more than 460 have new loft insulation and 265 have switched to more efficient types of heating. Freebridge is also fitting high efficiency boilers, insulated water tank jackets, and thermostatic radiator valves and programmes to help people make better use of their central heating fuel. 

Since Freebridge took over housing stock from the Borough Council of Kings Lynn & West Norfolk in April 2006, a total of 1202 boilers have been fitted and more than 6,200 thermostatic radiator valves and programmes have been installed in the tenants’ homes.

Southern Electric’s energy efficiency manager, Stephen Millward, said: “It’s very important that we take a responsible approach to providing the energy people need – and part of that approach involves encouraging customers to use energy carefully and reducing subsequent CO2 emissions.

“Up to 25 percent of heat is lost through the roof and up to 35 per cent through the walls.  Insulating homes therefore gives the biggest savings on energy bills, and this is why we’ve worked with the local authority and Freebridge Community Housing to introduce improvements to people’s homes.  Decent loft insulation will save anything up to £220 a year*, and cavity wall insulation up to £160 a year*, so you can imagine that while we have been operating this scheme, that has saved households around Kings Lynn thousands of pounds.”

Freebridge Principal Quantity Surveyor, Barbara Nuccoll, said: “These works are part of our long term commitment to improving tenants’ homes. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how much money it will save them overall, but feedback already received suggests some residents believe they have saved as much as 50 per cent on their heating bills since their homes have been insulated.
 
We are continuing to work with Southern Electric this year.  We will continue improving the insulation on our housing stock to the current standards as we carry out our ‘Decent Homes’ improvements and also fit external cladding to the non-traditional style properties.

The funding from Southern Electric will enable Freebridge to complete the work much sooner and help to achieve our aim for all properties to meet the Decent Homes standards by 2012. These measures will increase the energy efficiency of the properties, help reduce carbon emissions and reduce tenants' fuel bills.  In some cases it will provide full central heating for the first time.”

Sustain Ltd’s Social Housing Team Manager, Katie Hardidge, said "We have developed a long-term relationship with Barbara Nuccoll and colleagues at Freebridge to understand and meet their needs in terms of policy drivers, fuel poverty reduction and climate change mitigation. We hope to continue the relationship with Freebridge and Southern Electric to ensure these needs continue to be fulfilled both now and in the future."