Our Story

We are a housing association with a strong social purpose. We employ almost 600 people and have more than 13,500 homes across Merseyside and Cheshire, and are passionate about the positive impact that we can have on the communities our customers live in. 

The Challenge

The way we do things in the housing sector is changing rapidly to meet looming decarbonisation targets across the industry. There is a major focus now on making our homes as energy efficient as they can be – for the environment and our customers dealing with the cost-of-living crisis.

The work at Norwood and Gordon Court is our first major retrofit project, involving the installation of a ground source heat pump and major refurbishment of existing apartment blocks – which we had identified as among our least energy efficient homes.

It is a pilot project that has great potential to shape the way we work in future as we head towards becoming a carbon neutral organisation.

As such, it was an unknown for us, and required extensive planning and preparation.

It was a big ask of our customers in these schemes to effectively live on a building site for six months. We are grateful for their patience and understanding as we underwent such a major transformation of their homes, and hope they see the benefits now the work is done. Customer engagement needs to be a priority in these situations – they need to be involved from the start and be part of the decision-making process, as well as being kept informed of progress or any setbacks.

Our Solution

We were successful in securing £2m of grant funding through the first wave of Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, supported by Mayor Steve Rotheram and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

The work involved boring two 140m holes underground, to install a ground source heat pump to provide heating and hot water to more than 40 flats. In addition, the blocks have undergone a refurbishment of communal areas, and the most noticeable change is the installing of external insulation, which has seen the three buildings in the complex transformed with a white render that has covered the brick work. Cavity insulation, new windows and new patio doors in some ground floor flats are among the other retrofit works carried out at the scheme to improve energy efficiency throughout the buildings.

The flats previously relied on inefficient and costly storage heaters, which have been completely replaced with the new system. Almost all of the residents agreed to have the new system installed in their homes, and those who did not will still be able to connect to it in future.

Barry Callow, director of repairs, said: “We identified Norwood Court and Gordon Court as some of our poorest performing homes with regards to energy efficiency, so they were ideal for undertaking this pilot scheme. Storage heaters are not only inefficient but expensive for customers to run, and we are delighted to have been able to offer a sustainable alternative in the form of a ground source heat pump.

“Sustainability is a massive priority for the housing sector, and we are pleased that is also the first major project that sees us moving away from gas central heating to offer low carbon technology in our homes going forward.”
We worked with designers and retrofit specialists Constructive Thinking and contractors SBS on the project.

Want to find out more?

To find out more about Plus Dane Housing, follow the link below:

www.plusdane.co.uk