Cardiff Council has appointed net zero specialist, Sero on a project to retrofit 153 hard-to-heat properties in an effort to enhance energy efficiency and reduce residents’ energy bills.
The multi-million-pound project will see improvements to external wall insulation and ventilation at both council- and privately-owned British Iron & Steel Federation (BISF) homes in the Rumney area of the city.
Councillor Lynda Thorne, cabinet member for housing and communities, said: “We’ve been working for a number of years to find a funding solution to improve not only our own BISF homes, but the private homes as well, and as someone who grew up in a BISF home myself, I’m delighted that we are now in a position to move this scheme forward.
“It’s great news for the residents living in these homes. We are all so aware of the rising costs of heating our homes and these homes are particularly costly in terms of fuel bills. We look forward to working with Sero whose retrofit coordination expertise will be crucial on this project, and LCB the contractor partnering with us to deliver the project.”
Sero, based in the city, has been appointed as retrofit co-ordinator on the project and will be responsible for ensuring the process meets the PAS 2035 retrofit standard. The group will provide end-to-end project oversight and produce improvement options evaluation and medium-term improvement plans (MTIPs) for each home.
Funding from the council’s housing revenue account, and a contribution from Welsh Government will pay for the improvements to the council homes, while works to the private properties is being paid for solely by Welsh government.
All the 153 homes are categorised by Cardiff Council and Sero as ‘hard to heat’ and the work is expected to improve energy efficiency, lifting residents out of fuel poverty. The work will run until the end of March 2025.
James Williams, co-founder and chief executive of Sero, said: “We are delighted to be chosen to help Cardiff Council on this important retrofit scheme, which will ultimately support the local community.
“Fuel poverty remains a serious problem in homes across the UK and we are committed to ensuring this project meets the highest standards of retrofit work. Having coordinated large retrofit programmes before, we will implement our learnings from previous projects to ensure these works are delivered smoothly.”
Image credit: azem/Shutterstock
Read next: Green light for 315-home community near Falmouth
Are you a social housing professional? Sign up for a FREE MEMBERSHIP to upload news stories, post job vacancies, and connect with colleagues on our secure social feed.
