Nottingham is gearing up for the UK’s biggest rollout of Energiesprong homes in 2019

08 January 2019

Nottingham City Council has secured over £5million through the European Regional Development Fund (2014-20) to roll out its Energiesprong, ultra-low energy homes pilot, which will include improvements to over 150 Nottingham City Homes’ (NCH) properties. The scheme will tackle some of NCH’s older housing stock that is hard to heat, lifting residents out of fuel poverty. As well as being warmer, the environmental performance of the homes will be greatly improved reducing carbon emissions and improving air quality.

Energiesprong model further developed

The Energiesprong model, a ground-breaking whole-house renovation approach, pioneered in the Netherlands, has been further developed and this rollout in the UK includes energy efficiency improvements to a city school and a number of homes in Derby managed by Derby Homes. Melius Homes, who were the successful contractor for the Nottingham pilot and the rollout tender, will be continuing in their role as principal contractor.

“I’m so happy living here now, I’m no longer thinking of moving”

An NCH tenant from the initial pilot, Ms Esther Lutzuver, said: “These homes were really cold before and I dreaded winters. Before the energy efficiency works I was planning on moving as the cold was just getting too much. I really can’t believe the difference the refurb has made. Last winter was so much better, me and my family found the house to be really warm and my energy bills have not got more expensive in fact I’m paying less. I’m so happy living here now, I’m no longer thinking of moving, I’ve recently redecorated the whole house and I’m saving up for a new carpet.”

Another tenant, Miss Joan Warbuton, said: “As soon as the new walls were put in place, it felt warmer straight away. My home was really cold before and expensive to heat but now I’ve even had to stop wearing my winter slippers and get my summer ones back out.”

See the E=0 film Transforming Homes into the Future for feedback from tenants in Nottingham and from professionals explaining how Energiesprong provides a solution, not only in the UK, but also elsewhere in Europe.

Nottingham is at the forefront of this revolutionary approach in the UK

Councillor Sally Longford, the City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Energy and Environment, said: “As the city’s largest landlord it’s right that we that we tackle energy inefficient homes as all that wasted energy impacts on our climate change ambitions as well as being expensive for our residents. We have already achieved a lot through our Greener HousiNG programme and we are determined to do more. We’re very excited that Nottingham is at the forefront of this revolutionary approach, we’re not only improving people’s homes locally, but also helping to shape a new direction for tackling the UK’s coldest homes.”

Great start of 2019

Nottingham City Homes Chief Executive, Nick Murphy, said: “It’s important that we insulate our homes and make them more energy efficient for the future. As well as helping fight climate change this will tackle fuel poverty, making our homes warmer and cheaper to run.

“It’s a great start to 2019 to be rolling out the Energiesprong approach to so many homes. The first pilot homes look fantastic and have really lifted the local area; this rollout will really add to the regeneration of neighborhoods across the city.”

Melius Homes Managing Director, Rob Lambe, added “Nottingham City Homes is leading the way in the UK in adopting this transformational approach to whole house retrofit and we’re delighted to be delivering this ground-breaking project.”

Roll out in two phases

This rollout will be in two phases; Interreg NWE programme E=0 is supporting the first seventeen retrofits and a European Regional Development Funded project, Deep Retrofit Energy Model (DREeM) which aims to improve the efficiency of homes & public buildings in Nottingham is supporting the bulk of the rollout. The rollout follows a successful UK first pilot which was funded by European Union funding stream Horizon 2020, through a project called REMOURBAN.