The public housing authority’s ‘whole house’ retrofit programme will upgrade hundreds of homes by spring 2025
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which owns 83,000 homes, will invest £14m in retrofitting 300 homes with energy efficiency measures over the next year.
This investment, part of the Low Carbon Programme, will deliver ‘whole house retrofit’ approach, improving energy efficiency, incorporating renewable technology, and offering low-carbon heating solutions along with energy advice for these households.
Homes in Belfast, Dunmurry, Strabane, Newtownards, Sion Mills, Dungannon, Causeway, and Antrim areas will be upgraded via the scheme by spring 2025.
The scheme also aims to inform a future decarbonised heating policy. The 300-home initiative providing the potential to develop a scalable, low-carbon retrofit programme that will support the reduction of carbon emissions in line with legislation to achieve net-zero by 2050.
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The Northern Ireland Housing Executive plans to spend £57m on energy efficiency measures this year.
Grainia Long, chief executive at the NIHE, said: “Our Low Carbon Retrofit Programme will deliver a ‘whole house’ solution with the desired outcome of reducing carbon emissions, lowering householder bills and providing a heathier environment.
“A range of interventions will help us achieve this, including improving energy efficiency measures through retrofitting, the introduction of low carbon heating options like air source heat pumps and the use of renewable energy for power generation and electric storage.”
Long added that the initiative is “just one strand of our £57m investment plan in energy efficiency this year”, and that it will help the Housing Executive to combat the pressures created by fuel poverty and the cost-of-living crisis.
She said that the low-carbon retrofit scheme follows the completion of the Housing Executive’s first large-scale retrofit programme with support from the European Regional Development Fund and match funding from the Housing Executive at over £31m.
As a result of that programme, 1,400 homes are now warmer, more energy efficient and have a reduced carbon footprint.
In September, the NIHE finished building six new homes, the first development it has delivered in more than 24 years. The pilot project, located in North Belfast, utilised Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and ultra-low energy building techniques, to deliver homes that meet Passivhaus standards.
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