The G15, a group of London’s largest housing associations which together house around one in ten people in London, has successfully secured more than £2 million of Government funding to provide cavity wall insulation for thousands of hard-to-treat homes across the capital.

The bidding consortia, led by Family Mosaic, also includes the Hyde Group, East Thames, Peabody Trust and the Network Housing Group, has been announced as a successful bidder in the Social Housing Energy Saving Programme which was first unveiled as part of the 2009 Budget. 

Under the initiative, social landlords were encouraged to come forward to tender for money for insulation specifically for hard to treat homes, for example those in blocks of flats, in order to improve energy ratings, reduce carbon emissions and to provide people with warmer homes that were cheaper to run.

Welcoming the announcement, Jack Skinner, our Sustainability and Energy Policy Officer, who led the bid, said: “By working together, the G15 Environmental Consortia has ensured that we achieved a great result for residents. We look forward to utilising these funds to insulate hard to treat homes; cutting CO2 emissions by 1400 tonnes a year and significantly lowering the energy bills of residents living in them.”

The group have secured sufficient funding to treat over 3,600 homes, with close collaborative working between partners guaranteeing that a significant proportion of the work will be carried out by the end of 2010.

The successful bid will also provide a much needed employment boost to the wall insulation industry, with around 20 jobs expected to be created during the 2009-2011 period, in addition to a significant number of indirect jobs that will be created by the programme.

Much of the work will be carried out in some of the most deprived areas of the UK, ensuring that employment opportunities are occurring where they are most needed.