TOWN Hall chiefs at Warrington are being urged to approve the business case for installing solar heating in 600 former council houses at a cost of more than £6.5 million over 25 years.
Tenants of the houses, mainly in the Longford area, would see their electricity costs reduced by £112 a year – a total of £67,200 a year for all 600 homes.
It is forecast the project would save 474 tonnes of carbon a year, helping Warrington to meet Government climate change objectives such as the long term goal tu reduce CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
The scheme will be considered by the borough council’s executive board next week when a report by Cllr David 
Keane, (pictured) executive member for environment and public protection will be presented.
Golden Gates Housing Trust (GGHT) now owns the 600 properties and the scheme would involve a partnership between the council and the trust
All the properties involved would be in the “Closing the Gap” target area – a council initiative to close the gap between the most affluent and most deprived areas of the borough.
It is thought the scheme would take some tenants out of fuel poverty.
GGHT owns 3,004 properties in the Closing the Gap area and a feasibility study has shown that 1,137 would be suitable for the installation of solar photovoltaic panels, so the 600 homes scheme would be seen as a pilot.
The scheme would support other investment and energy efficiency measures proposed by GGHT, including double glazing, modern heating systems and loft insulation.
Council chiefs will be asked to approve borrowing money to fund the supply and installation of the solar panels.
But the electricity generated under the scheme will be entitled to payments under the Government’s Clean Energy Cashback under which energy suppliers make regular payments to those who generate their own power from renewable or low carbon sources such as solar.
Over a period of 25 years it is forecast there would be a surplus of £7.1 million which would be shared equally with GGHT.
£6.5 million solar heating plan
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
9 Comments
Why should Warrington Council be asked to foot the bill, with money that it doesn’t have, when the owner of the properties is now Golden Gates Housing Trust, which is now an independent organisation free from council control and responsibility.
Reading the above, the Council borrows the money at a low rate on behalf of GGHT, then they split the profits after the loan is paid off. It depends on the rate they get for the electricity – I don’t know if the tariffs are fixed, but presumably that is all part of the business case. If it stacks up, then great on them for doing it – it shows a lead and helps some deprived area residents with their energy costs!
But with regards to borrowing money, isn’t that why the banking system and government finances are now experiencing such problems. Wouldn’t any money be better spent on energy insulation or replacing energy inefficient products with the latest more efficient ones. On the other hand, maybe the government should examine the working practices of energy companies, all of whom in the UK, I think, are foreign owned, to me they seem to be making massive profits on the back of the poorest. And given supply and demand economics, the less energy capacity the UK has, the greater energy companies’ profit become. They have no incentive to increase capacity leading to lower prices for consumers.
It will be rather strange if the Labour controlled council approves this scheme, as it was only in March this year that Labour, then in opposition, opposed a proposal by the previous administration for a solar farm which would have achieved savings of more than £370,000 a year and cut emissions by 2,040. One of the reasons for their stance was that you could not rely on enough sunshine. Are we to understand that under Labour the sun will shine more in Warrington?
The headline is very misleading!
if this is generating a surplus of £7.1m then it is not at a cost of £6.5m, it’s actually as saving to the council and helping some of the more deprived in the borough… shame the panels aren’t on today in sunny Warington 😮
So the council tax payer stumps up £6.5 million, and 600 Golden Gates tennants save £112 a year on their electric bill (assuming the sun shines, the technology works, the costs don’t rise, the feed in tarrifs – paid for by increasing the bills of everyone else – stay at the same levels, etc. etc. etc.). As a non Golden Gates tennant, what’s in it for me?????
WBC gaining half of the £7m profit, by the sound of it! I think the tariffs are fixed for the duration, so it looks like a decent project to me. As for the solar farm, the business case for that looked a lot more challenging, rather than an initiative which tackles social deprivation
Still don’t see why tennants of one particular private landlord (GGHT) should be gifted £112 of free electricity a year from a scheme financed at the council taxpayers expense. Is this scheme going to be open to tennants of other private landlords? or to Council Tax paying homeowners? or is WBC playing favourites here? – just as they did when they simply gave away the billions of pounds worth of property which was our entire council housing stock.
BTW, the feed in tarrifs are NOT fixed for the next 25 years, and they are currently under review by the government. There is also a legal challenge to them planned on the basis that power company customers who cannot install solar or wind generators on their own homes are being unfairly forced to pay for the artificially high feed in tarrifs through the “green” levy on all power bills.
Why should Council Tax Payers have to fund this scheme in any way with funds that WBC simply do not have? Why should tenants of GGHT have a £112 reduction in their fuel costs at the expense of Council Tax Payers. If WBC borrows money on behalf of GGHT as a reduced rate then what guarantees are there and who pays the interest on the loan. I think we need to know at lot more about this before it goes ahead. It will not be surprising that the new Labour Group approves this since they appear to be blinkered when it comes to GGHT!