Pilot housing scheme aims to support council’s carbon neutral ambitions

A housebuilder is working with Manchester City Council to launch a new pilot scheme which will support the authority’s carbon neutral aspirations.

Keepmoat Homes is making five new two and three bedroom homes available through heylo’s Home Reach Shared Ownership scheme at its Connell Gardens development in West Gorton.

The homes are part of a pilot scheme that means they feature the latest smart home technology designed to combine energy generation, storage and home automation in order to reduce the impact of rising energy costs on the resident.

The pilot scheme will be delivered as part of the final phase of a 400 unit regeneration scheme, which has been delivered by Keepmoat in partnership with Manchester City Council.

Keepmoat is now supporting Manchester City Council to deliver its vision of being a zero carbon city by 2038, through working with smart home specialist Wondrwall to find practical solutions that provide an affordable, scalable and deliverable solution to reducing carbon emissions in new build housing.

The new homes have the potential to reduce home energy consumption by 20% and electricity bills by up to 90%, deliver outstanding thermal performance and utilise renewable and clean energy with the potential to generate income by selling surplus energy back to the National Grid.

The project will see these five new homes, with prices starting at £90,997 for 50% share, receive:

• Dual aspect photovoltaic solar panels to generate as much electricity in a year as the homes consume
• Battery storage to maximise the use of free renewable and low cost off-peak electricity
• Enhanced building fabric improvements
• Car charging points
• Smart home automation to control and reduce energy usage automatically

Craig Murphy, regional managing director at Keepmoat, said: “Climate change is a key challenge facing everyone and that’s why we’re not only proud to support Manchester City Council’s ambition to be a zero carbon city but are also looking at ways we can support this on our developments.

“We felt the final phase of our Connell Gardens scheme provided the perfect opportunity to run a pilot project alongside the Council, Wondrwall and heylo to see how we could not only support local government aspirations but also help find practical solutions that tackle not just climate change but the rising energy costs of our customers.”

Suzanne Richards, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, said: “Manchester is determined to do its part to limit the impact of climate change, which is why we have our ambitious target of becoming a zero carbon city by 2038. Reducing the environmental impact of new housing is central to reaching that target.

“To meet the demand for new housing in the city we need to build 32,000 new homes by 2025 with at least 20% being affordable. We need to ensure the city is championing sustainable building methods and energy efficiency, that will not only help us to reach our zero carbon target but will benefit residents’ pockets too.  Pilots like this are going to be fundamental to the city’s zero carbon success.”