Lewisham in south east London says the move is cheaper than using scaffolding and will help residents while the country’s freezing temperatures continue.

The borough’s elected mayor, Sir Steve Bullock, has set a new target of a 40% emissions reduction for Lewisham by 2020 as part of the council’s commitment to fight climate change and help people cut the cost of their energy bills.

One of the ways Lewisham is doing this is an insulation scheme for social housing, funded through a grant from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

The HCA funding has also been used to support a new project with Affinity Sutton, an affordable housing provider with more than 1,000 homes in the borough, to install cavity wall insulation with the help of a team of abseiling specialists, Avalon Abseiling.

Sir Steve went to view the works in progress to see workers abseiling down the side of an eleven storey tower block in Leybridge Court Estate.

He said: “Using abseiling to insulate the building means we don’t have to put up scaffolding, it gets the work done quicker, it’s cheaper and it’s less hassle for residents.

“Cutting carbon emissions makes sense from a local, national and global perspective.

“Our focus in Lewisham is on those most affected by rising bills and cold weather, and on bringing in as much external funding as we can to improve the energy efficiency of homes.”

Luke Walsh

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