Homes feel the benefit of money-saving insulation scheme

Resident Carol Fry with Cllr Neil Emmott, Cabinet Member for Housing and Environment at Rochdale Borough Council

Residents across Rochdale are enjoying rising household temperatures and falling energy bills following an innovative council scheme to insulate their properties.

Over 90 of the hardest to heat properties across the borough have already benefitted from solid wall insulation, and other energy saving measures, after the council successfully bid for money through the warm zones initiative.

Pensioner Carol Fry is set to save more than £100 on her energy bills over the next year after the team carried out solid wall insulation, replaced her gutters and installed a new boiler at her home in Heywood.

She said: “I’m thrilled with the work that’s been done on my house. As I’m no longer working, I have to be careful with money. Before I had this work done, I had to use my heating really sparingly and I’d wear two jumpers in the house, but now, it’s so warm, I hardly need to put the heating on. My bills have now dropped from £62 to £52 a month and I’m in credit. This kind of work would have cost over £10,000 if I’d had it done privately and there’s no way I could have afforded that.”

Properties in Spotland, Falinge and Heywood have benefitted from the scheme, with the council hoping to insulate a further 110 properties over the coming months.

As well as solid wall insulation, the scheme, which is part funded by the council, also provides other energy efficiency measures, including new gutters and new boilers.

In most cases, the work is completed free of charge, with some householders making a small contribution towards the overall cost.

Councillor Neil Emmott, cabinet member for housing and environment at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “The properties targeted in the scheme are some of the hardest to heat in the borough, and with solid wall insulation being so costly, very few schemes have covered these types of properties in the past.

“Having a warm home is vital for people’s wellbeing, but with the cost of heating rising all the time, many are finding it’s out of their reach. That’s why schemes like this are so important. I’m really pleased to see that this project is already making a big difference to the lives of these residents.”

The initiative is just part of the council’s efforts to tackle the rising cost of energy, with another scheme, operating across Greater Manchester, also offering free or part-funded boiler repairs and replacements, to help people stay warm this winter.