E.ON to green thousands of homes

On average every home in Derby in the Midlands should be able to save more than £600 a year through a £6.6m scheme run by Derby City Council, Derby Homes and energy giant E.ON.

The scheme will see more than 2,200 homes across the city fitted with a range of energy saving scheme, including insulating solid brick walls, new heating systems, cavity wall and loft insulation and even solar panels as part of a project to help tackle fuel poverty in some of the most deprived communities.

E.ON will put in the bulk of the £3.4m funding with the council covering the vast majority of the remaining costs and private homeowners picking up the rest.

The work is being carried out under the Government’s Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) and could save some residents hundreds of pounds a year.

E.ON CESP manager, Jon Kirby, said: “We’re committed to getting homes energy fit and this is a great example of councils, communities and companies getting together to help people lower their bills and reduce their effect on the planet.

“By tackling whole communities in such a way we can really start to make a difference and build energy efficiency into our everyday lives.

“And it’s not just these homes benefiting from the investment; private homeowners can also take advantage of reduced rates on similar energy efficiency measures.”

Under CESP, more than £350m will be invested by energy companies up until 2012. The scheme was created in September 2009 to give whole-house energy makeovers to 90,000 hard-to-treat homes across England, Wales and Scotland.

Luke Walsh