£310k boost to warm up city estates (From thisisoxfordshire)
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£310k boost to warm up city estates
9:30am Tuesday 22nd January 2013 in News
A PROJECT to slash energy bills and make homes on one of Oxford’s estates warmer has been given a cash boost.
Oxford City Council has been awarded £310,000 from the Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change to help those most in need.
The money will be spent on the Warming Barton project, which was set up to aid those in the area make heating their homes cheaper.
An extra 100 homes in Barton are to be recruited to the Green Deal Scheme, which already includes 100 homes on the estate.
The cash could also be used to set the scheme up in other estates such as Blackbird Leys and Rose Hill.
The Green Deal aims to tackle issues specific to Oxford, such as pockets of fuel poverty, the large number of private sector rented housing which consume huge amounts of power, and the high density of heritage buildings.
Green Party councillors welcomed the move and said it would replace cuts made elsewhere, such as the axing of the city council’s Domestic Energy Advisor last year.
John Tanner, board member for cleaner, greener Oxford, said: “It is good to know that some of the money the Government has cut from local councils is coming back to Oxford to help people on low-incomes with fuel bills.”
The Warming Barton Pilot was launched by the city council in November and is being delivered by the Low Carbon Hub working with Low Carbon Barton and the Barton Community Association. It has cost £48,000 so far, funded by the Low Carbon Hub and the Energy Saving Co-operative group.
