Member Article

Warm glow after contract win

Winning work on the two largest Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) schemes in the UK has produced a warm glow for workers at a North East construction firm.

The contract, to clad 500 Teesside homes with the latest insulation materials, safeguards the jobs of 25 people at AH Property Services. It has also allowed the company, which has a head office on the North Tyne Industrial Estate in Newcastle, to open a second base at the Riverside Industrial Park in Middlesbrough and comes just as a 10-year programme of work on the government’s Decent Homes initiative is completed.

Said Business Development Director, Keith McDougall: “We are delighted to have secured work which allows us to demonstrate skills in a new area and diversify our business, while continuing to have a positive impact on the lives of local people. We are confident of winning more insulation work which will allow us to take on more employees.”

Altogether 2,300 homes in Middlesbrough and Stockton are receiving free energy efficiency measures, designed to tackle fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions, through Jarrow based community interest company, Community Energy Solutions (CES).

Valued at a combined £11 million, these are the largest private-sector CESP projects currently underway in the UK. The GoWarm Parkfield project, which involves 1,200 homes in Stockton-on-Tees, is being run in partnership with Stockton Borough Council with funding from North Yorkshire based Eggborough Power Ltd.

The GoWarm Gresham scheme, with 1,100 properties in Middlesbrough, is being run in partnership with Middlesbrough Council and is funded primarily by integrated power and gas company E.ON. In both cases eligible properties are to benefit from a package of energy efficiency measures which could include external wall insulation and new heating systems, which are expected to lower their fuel bills and cut carbon emissions by more than 260,000 tonnes a year overall.

Karen Hindhaugh, Director of GoWarm said: “We are pleased to welcome AH Property Services to the projects which have already delivered real benefits to residents of Stockton and Middlesbrough, with many reporting that their homes are warmer and their energy bills are reduced.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .