Why are green buildings important?
34% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions coming from building, heating and powering our buildings. Poor insulation means that heat will escape more rapidly and more fuel will be used when you have the heating on during the winter months.
13% of households in Bury are in fuel poverty, which means they can’t afford to heat their homes properly. Poor insulation contributes to this problem and the number of people in fuel poverty will increase because of rising energy bills.
What can I do in my community?
Find out what’s happening in your local area and across Bury for ideas. Get involved or start something (however small) in your own neighbourhood.
Community organised home retrofit
More and more people are retrofitting their homes to reduce energy bills, cut carbon emissions, improve their health and transform cold, neglected rooms into cosy, well-used spaces.
People Powered Retrofit is a not-for-profit service for householders in Greater Manchester, offering clear, independent advice and support to help you plan, procure and deliver your retrofit project to a high standard. Link: https://retrofit.coop/
Carbon Co-op is an energy services and advocacy co-operative based in Manchester. They help people and communities to make the radical reductions in home carbon emissions necessary to avoid runaway climate change. Attend their monthly virtual EcoHome Lab meet up to learn more about home energy monitoring.
Energy advice
LEAP is a free service that is helping people keep warm and reduce their energy bills without costing them any money. See how you can save. Link: applyforleap.org.uk
Health Watch Bury provide help and advice for staying warm in the winter months.
Radcliffe:
Trinity Foodbank provides energy advice for people in Bury West on Thursdays and Fridays from 9am-12 pm.
Borough-wide
Citizens Advice Bury and Bolton for advice and support on reducing home energy costs.
What we could do in Bury
Low Carbon Developments
OneManchester have built the first net-zero social housing development using new construction methods and installing insulation thought all their new homes. Find out more about their Blackrock Street Development here.
What are the Council doing in for green buildings?
The Council has set a number of actions around green buildings. in its Climate Action Plan (pg 12-15):
- Gathering data on the state of Bury’s private and public sector housing stock to establish a baseline position
- Engaging with social-housing providers to explore how they could speed up the transition to carbon-neutral housing
- Collaborating with and encouraging all relevant partners to move towards carbon-neutrality
- Developing a Scheme Delivery Framework so that when funding opportunities arise, we can be bid-ready in a timely manner
- Designing and implementing a planned programme to energy audit and decarbonise all Bury Council’s corporate buildings and local schools
- Working with Six Town Housing to implement Greater Manchester’s Landlords Combined Climate Strategy
- Developing a plan to bring all currently built public and privately-owned housing into carbon-neutrality by 2038 and SAP C rating by 2025
- Working with our business community to develop a robust network of service providers that can deliver energy-efficiency upgrades
- Upgrading Local Authority housing stock to carbon-neutral standard as part of pilot schemes
Many of these actions are in the early stages or yet to start. Contact your local Councillor to find out what they are doing to support these actions.
Six Town Housing have recently put in a bid for funding to decarbonise their homes. The aim of decarbonising their social housing stock is to help reduce fuel costs for residents and reduce overall CO2 emissions from the buildings. If successful, the funds would be used to install new loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and external wall insulation. In addition to new LED bulbs throughout the homes, as well new double glazing if needed.
Resources
Home energy saving tips from Six Town Housing
Green Mortgage Hub: Green Mortgage products come in a variety of different forms, but all aim to incentivise homeowners to invest in improving the energy efficiency of their properties.