Homes belonging to Crawley Borough Council are set to become the first to benefit from retrofit programme designed to decarbonise UK homes

Property services business Liberty has begun retrofitting homes owned by Crawley Borough Council as part of its plans to find affordable solutions to decarbonise UK homes.

Brought together by NetZero Collective, Liberty and Crawley Borough Council’s long-term partnering contractors and are expected to save 572 tonnes of CO2 by 2050, saving residents an average of £600 a year on their fuel bills.

NetZero Collective’s approach aims to minimise energy demand by improving the fabric of the property first, before switching to a low or zero-carbon energy source.

The other key benefit is the commitments of the collective to develop local supply chains, and work in collaboration with the local college to develop the skills required to ensure that demand can be met in future years.

Following the analysis of a selection of homes owned by Crawley Borough Council, it has found some of them would benefit from an improved loft insulation, new external walls and cavity insulation to minimise energy demand.

Liberty and partnering contractor will install a mixture of zero-carbon technologies to a number of properties, including air source heat pumps, solar photovoltaics and battery storage. The retrofit works are projected to eliminate 101.6% of the carbon emissions, which equates to the elimination of 572 tonnes of CO2 by 2050, That’s an average saving each year for the residents of over £600 on their fuel bills.

Ray Jones, Group Managing Director of Liberty, said: “We are thrilled to be working with one of our existing clients to progress this initiative. We have been committed to the NetZero Collective since it launched last year and have adopted an innovative and proactive approach to meeting our targets.

“While we have outlined the first improvements, I suspect we will continue to identify new ways we can reduce our carbon dioxide usage as we go through the process.

“We are looking forward to being part of the council’s collaborative partnering contract and are grateful to Crawley Borough Council for joining the collective with this initiative.”

Councillor Ian Irvine, Cabinet Member for Housing, added: “We are delighted that Crawley Borough Council tenants will be the first to benefit from the retrofit scheme, which will help us move towards our goal of being net zero by 2050.

“This project also demonstrates a real investment in the community with the upskilling of our workforce to meet future needs and working in collaboration with Crawley College to educate future students on this technology with its newly built dedicated energy centre.”