Birmingham City Council’s decarbonisation programme will begin with an initial 300 homes in the east of the city as a pilot scheme to test different approaches to improving thermal efficiency, reducing carbon emissions and cutting energy bills.

The £27m contract value works out at an average spend of £90,000 per home.

The work by Equans – part of Engie Group but in the process of being sold to Bouygues – will inform how the council will then tackle its stock of 60,000 properties across the city.

Birmingham City Council has committed to making the city carbon neutral by 2030. Council housing has been identified as responsible for 26% of the authority’s total carbon emissions.

Birmingham’s pilot scheme forms part of the 3 Cities Retrofit programme – one of the largest retrofit initiatives in the UK, which could cover nearly 165,000 social homes across Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton.

Paul Bingham, regional director for Equans UK & Ireland, said: “The council took the bold step of publicly declaring and committing the city to be net zero by 2030.  As Europe’s largest local authority, the council has more housing stock, customers, and infrastructure to contend with – not to mention the pressure and responsibility as a leading local authority to perform and innovate.

“This pilot programme is a testament to the council’s dedication to just do that.  We have a long-standing partnership with Birmingham and our broad expertise in energy, regeneration and retrofit means we are primed to make those goals a reality.”

Council leader Ian Ward said: “These 300 properties are just the start of our ambitious plans to ensure that all our housing stock is carbon neutral by 2030.  The council has a large estate and the delivery of the 3 Cities Whole House Retrofit Pilot, presents us with a great opportunity to progress towards our net zero carbon ambitions.”

Councillor Sharon Thompson, cabinet member for housing & homelessness, added: “We need to improve the thermal efficiency of our housing stock to reduce carbon emissions, reduce energy bills, address fuel poverty and support a just transition to a zero carbon city.  This pilot will show us the way to do this and underpin our strategy for long term investment in our housing stock.”

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