Green light for energy

GREEN deal . . . (back, from left) Mark Parker, Forrest operations director, Lee McCarren, Forrest chief executive, and Maria O’Brien, First Choice Homes Oldham B Green project manager. Front: Cath Green, FCHO chief executive, and Michele Carr, assistant executive director, housing and planning, Oldham Council

A £10 MILLION green scheme will see 2,400 residents in central Oldham benefit from energy-efficient home improvements.

The “B Green” project, a partnership between First Choice Homes Oldham, Oldham Council, British Gas and Forrest and Savills, will see 1,400 homes benefit from new boilers and insulation.

FCHO will invest another £11 million in kitchens, bathrooms, electrical works and communal stairwells.

The homes, in the St Mary’s, Coldhurst, Barker Street, Burnley Street and Egerton Street areas, will have old heating systems replaced by biomass district-heating boilers. These will be housed in purpose-built plant rooms serving either individual or pairs of high rises.

The project will employ several local people for everything from resident-liaison work to construction.

The scheme won £10 million from the Energy Company Obligation, which replaced previous government scemes aimed at reducing carbon emissions