Award win celebrates shift to low emission heating for social housing in the north of England

A scheme led by Together Housing Group has been recognised as ‘heat pump project of the year’ at the H&V News Awards 2024

An ambitious project to provide residents with warmer homes and lower energy bills has been celebrated with a recent awards win.

Together Housing Group is one of the leading housing providers in the north of England, owning and managing some 36,000 homes. 

As a part of its net zero ambitions, and to focus on residents’ health and wellbeing, the group is working to upgrade houses with quality insulation and low carbon heating measures.

Alongside upgrading insulation to help homes to better retain heat, the project has focused on supporting residents with the transition away from fossil fuel heat sources. This has been done by replacing traditional heating in hundreds of homes with low-emission air source heat pumps.

Officially awarded ‘heat pump project of the year’ at the Heating and Ventilation (H&V) News Awards 2024, Together Housing is proud to say the award showcases it’s doing the right thing for its residents.

Gemma Voaden, group delivery manager for retrofit and renewable heat, said: “Winning the award was a fantastic achievement, however we see this work as ‘business as usual’ now.

“To us, the award offers recognition that what we’re doing is the right thing, which is great.”

The project won the award in a collaborative submission with Panasonic Heating and Cooling Solutions Europe, Concept Heating Systems and distributor Graham’s. 

To support the work, Together Housing Group was awarded £9.5 million through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.1. Our teams at Salix act as delivery agent for this scheme, working closely with our delivery partner consortium led by PwC. 

Funding is delivered on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The group aims to install a total of 77 heat pumps funded through the scheme. Additional installs have been supplemented by a parallel heat pump programme run in conjunction with Panasonic, Concept and Graham’s.

Looking ahead, the group hopes to continue to scale up works, with word-of-mouth from positive resident experiences and further education on the benefits of heat pumps vital to achieving success.

Gemma added: “Across the last two and a half to three years, we’ve proven we can do it, so now it’s about scaling up and working with our stakeholders to enable us to do this.”

The group also plans to focus on the more difficult properties amongst its housing stock, with adaptability key to ensure measures are best fit-for-purpose for each individual home.

You can read more about Together Housing Group via its website.

About the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund

First launched in August 2021, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund made grant funding available to eligible social housing landlords, including local authorities and housing associations, so that they can install energy efficiency measures, such as insulation and heat pumps, in socially rented homes. 

The scheme is designed to support more social housing tenants, who will benefit from homes that are warmer and cheaper to heat, saving money on their fuel bills, as well as cutting carbon emissions, as part of the UK’s approach to delivering net zero in a way that reduces the burden on British families.

In our capacity as delivery agent for the scheme, we provide assurance to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. We continue to monitor and make refinements, responding to the feedback we receive, to ultimately help all successful grant recipients on their journey to supporting the net zero agenda.

Read more about the scheme through our website.