£2.845million work underway to improve the energy efficiency of more than 700 homes across Sunderland

We are delighted to announce we have started work to improve the energy efficiency of over 700 homes across Sunderland.

The first phase of work began in Washington last month following Gentoo being awarded £2.845million from the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Wave 2:2 fund earlier this year.

Gentoo have partnered with retrofit solution provider, Mears to deliver a portion of the energy efficiency improvement works to our homes. The programme will install the following measures to homes across Sunderland:  

•    Loft Insulation
•    Cavity wall insulation 
•    Improved ventilation
•    Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels 
•    Low energy lighting
•    Smart, zoned heating controls

Mears will be installing measures to a minimum of 515 homes with works valued at around £4.145 million. 

The work is part of a co-funded £5.690 million project that will be delivered across 2024/25 and 2025/26. The completion of the work will result in all 707 homes achieving EPC Band C with Gentoo customers benefitting from a warmer and more energy efficient home.


Peter Akers, Director of Asset and Sustainability at Gentoo said: “We are delighted to be working with our partners at Mears to deliver much needed energy efficiency improvement work to more than 700 of our customers homes. Customers are at the heart of everything we do at Gentoo and this work will see our customers benefit from a warmer home and reduction in energy consumption. The launch of the work also brings us a step closer to ensuring all our properties have an EPC rating of C by 2030.” 


Michael McGowan, Head of Carbon Reduction Solutions at Mears Group said:
“We are delighted to see work starting across this programme, realising the ambition shown by our partner Gentoo at the time of the DESNZ application in January 2024. Delivering energy efficiency measures to more than 700 homes across Sunderland, will not only reduce energy bills for residents, but also reduce carbon emissions as a result. We look forward to working in partnership with Gentoo across the delivery phase of this programme and hope to continue this relationship into future retrofit programmes.”

 

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