Stonebridge set for new £2.9m Investment

This Is Nottingham

Stonebridge Park Houses are to have a major spring clean this year after Nottingham City Council agreed to provide more than £1.9m toward the venture at a special meeting on Monday. The money will be used to top up an NPower grant of £993,425 from the Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP).

 

CESP targets households across Great Britain, in areas of low income, to improve energy efficiency standards, and reduce fuel bills. There are 4,500 areas eligible for CESP money that is funded by an obligation on energy suppliers and electricity generators.

In August 2011, Nottingham City Council launched a consultations programme involving 61 households on the estate to improve their homes and allow them to blend in with the new properties now under construction. This is being funded from the Housing Revenue Account, and the homes would get new perimeter railings & fences, off road parking areas and external wall cladding.

The Scheme, which is being coordinated by Nottingham City Homes, includes Lytton Close, Eastham Close, Dennet Close, Wray Close, and parts of Flewitt Gardens & Stonebridge Road.

Tenants of Nottingham City Homes are to have the cladding free of charge while homeowners were being asked to pay a contribution of £6,000 if they lived in a three-bedroom house, and £12,000 for a four-bedroom property. However, no one took up the offer.

The New £2.9m Investment means that the scheme can now be rolled out to cover the whole of the Stonebridge Park Estate to provide cladding in addition to new doors and windows. Homeowners will still be expected to make a contribution of about £6,550, which the City Council believes is better value for money.

There is a sense of urgency as the CESP Programme ends in December, and the NPower grant needs to be spent before the end of autumn 2011.

 

Ms Loraine Crofts who lives in Eastham Close said today “This is really good news, but as a home owner we still cannot afford the £6,000 even though its better value, and I don’t think my neighbours will be able to as they are pensioners.

“When they bought their homes they spent a lot of money making them nice, and they are settled. Pensioners do not want the extra burden of this debt, although everyone on our estate has different circumstances, and this is a really good opportunity for them.”