38 social housing homes in Newark and Sherwood get solar panels
District Council in Nottinghamshire agrees to use EMCAA money on panel installation that will keep council-owned homes warm and cheaper to run, as part of wider effort to carbonise.
The money for this project comes via the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), as part of preparations to amalgamate Derbyshire County Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, Derby City Council and Nottingham City Council into an East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) under a regional mayor. This amalgamation can’t happen without legislation from central government, but that’s expected by the end of the year, with mayoral elections for the new combined authority anticipated to take place in May 2024.
Ossington Coffee Shop in Newark, photo by Laurence Goff
In the meantime, a total of £18m has been granted to the region by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities as part of preparations for the forthcoming East Midlands Combined Authority, with £583,00 allocated to Newark and Sherwood District Council. At a meeting held on October 31, councillors agreed to put all of this money into its housing assets capital programme to fund decarbonisation measures in 38 social housing properties.
‘These measures will benefit tenants by reducing heating costs,’ says the council’s report, ‘and it will be more likely that tenants keep their homes sufficiently heated. This benefits the Council in maintaining their homes and the Council is less likely to have to intervene to remedy
any damp and mould.’
Newark and Sherwood District Council had already identified 102 council-owned properties which will be fitted with carbon neutral air source heating and solar panels, as part of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.1 project with the Midlands Net Zero Hub (MNZH). The council’s successful bid was announcement in March this year, with funding allocated to the value of £1,317,000. Some 107 separate projects across the UK received a total £778m as part of this Wave 2.1 funding, with money to be spent by March 31, 2025.
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