Cllr Mel Dawkins, Alan Baldock and Pip Hazelton standing in front of ‘Elvis house’ Photo: Canterbury City Council
A three-bedroom house at the end of St Peter’s Place, will see its refurbishment take the EPC rating from an E to an A, and once complete, the home will be used as temporary accommodation for people awaiting an offer of permanent council housing. The project kicked off this week to transform a vacant property into Canterbury City Council’s first net zero social home.
It’s designed to trial what decarbonisation of the council’s housing stock through retrofitting could look like and will see Canterbury’s ‘Elvis House’, known for displaying the King of Rock and Roll’s image for more than 40 years, packed with green technology.
Cllr Pip Hazelton, Cabinet Member for Housing, said:
“I am thrilled to see this vital step taken towards reshaping our housing stock which I’m sure will offer valuable insight for developing a retrofit-at-scale approach.
“Decarbonisation through retrofitting would not only mean properties are brought back into use to boost social housing and cut our waiting list but would also see occupied energy-inefficient homes upgraded to slash running costs for current tenants.
“Our residents deserve affordable, high-quality social homes and this is just more evidence of our commitment to delivering that.”
The pilot forms part of the council’s Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) which was developed and adopted in May 2021 to provide a roadmap for achieving net zero emissions from the council’s operations and assets by 2030.
Some of the proposed green upgrades include:
- high-quality external wall, cavity wall, roof and underfloor insulation
- triple glazed windows
- mechanical ventilation heat recovery
- air source heat pump
- solar panels
Plans also include turning the property into a two-bedroom house to comply with minimum space standards alongside improvements to the garden and installation of a new kitchen and bathroom.
The project is part-funded by the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund and will take approximately six months to complete.
Cllr Mel Dawkins, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, added:
“Not only is this important progress for giving people decent affordable housing, but it also signals a significant stride towards achieving our 2030 net zero target.
“Even though we have already made major progress in cutting the carbon emissions produced by council-owned assets, energy-inefficient social homes remain a huge piece of the council’s decarbonisation puzzle.
“Although this project alone won’t get us to where we need to be, our hope is that it is a catalyst for change both inside and outside the council by inspiring residents to decarbonise their own homes and encouraging the local construction industry to invest in retrofit skills for their workforce.”