Solar profits to improve housing stock
Nottingham Council is planning to use money generated by fitting solar panels to its homes to invest in improving its stock.
Councillors approved plans last week that could see 1,450 homes fitted with photovoltaic panels, at a cost of around £6,000 per home.
The scheme will be funded by the council, and managed by its arm’s-length management organisation, Nottingham City Homes.
The panels should reduce annual electricity bills for tenants by around £100 a year. They will also allow the council to claim 43p per kilowatt hour of electricity generated from the government, though the feed-in tariff.
This will pay off the cost of the initial investment in the technology, with any surplus reinvested in improving Nottingham’s social housing stock.
Janet Storar, chair of NCH, said: ‘We are determined to support the council’s commitment to local jobs and training opportunities. We want to see our contractors hiring as many local people as possible and we hope to be able to offer additional training to our apprentices too.’