People of Sheffield will learn to energy save

Homes in Sheffield will receive funding to make their homes more economically friendly.

Sheffield is one of seven English cities chosen as part of the ‘green deal’ – a scheme hoping to promote energy-saving in the home and revolutionise energy efficiency.

The idea of the deal is that energy saving should not cost more. In fact, becoming more energy efficient should go hand in hand with saving money.

“Under the Green Deal, bill payers will be able to get energy efficiency improvements without having to front up the cash. Instead, businesses will provide the capital, getting their money back via the energy bill," said Chris Huhne, Energy and Climate Change (DECC) secretary. “At the heart of the offer is a simple rule: estimated savings on bills will always equal or exceed the cost of the work”.

The Green Deal is necessary on both a local and national level. Locally, households and businesses are consuming too much energy, and paying too much. Nationally, the country needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions which risk dangerous climate change.

Sheffield has been given a share of the £12 million used to kick-start the campaign and will receive £570,000 to find as many homes and business which it can help to make energy efficiency improvements.

This will suit landlords in the South Yorkshire city, with the Green Deal requiring them to make their properties more eco-friendly.

“In the domestic sector, we are proposing powers to require landlords to honour reasonable requests from their tenants for energy efficiency improvements, where financial support is available so there are no upfront costs to the landlord,” Mr Huhne said.

Other cities awarded a portion of the funds are Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, and Nottingham.

To qualify for access, cities were asked to submit proposals to lower their emissions.

Posted by Claire Manning