Hundreds of Curo customers will be getting upgrades to their homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run, thanks to an £18 million investment.
Some of Curo’s properties with solar panels installed | Photo © Curo
It was announced on Tuesday, 11th March, that the Bath-based housing association has been awarded £5 million from the Government’s Warm Homes scheme, and Curo will be adding an extra £13 million.
The project, known as the Great Green Upgrade, will run for three-and-a-half years, and Curo says it will see around 1,066 households across Bath and Bristol getting improvements to their homes. These could include solar panels, improved insulation, new windows and doors, and upgraded heating systems.
Curo’s director of procurement and asset management, Matt Steele, said: “We’re delighted that we’ve been awarded this funding, which will allow us to make energy-saving upgrades to these homes.
“We know that rising energy bills are a concern for many of our customers, so it’s brilliant that we’re going to be able to make these improvements.
“Customers have also told us that sustainability is important to them, and these changes will also make the homes greener and reduce their carbon footprint.
“All homes need to have an energy efficiency rating of at least EPC C by 2030, and the Great Green Upgrade is part of our work to make sure that we can achieve this.”
Curo completed its first energy-saving home improvement project last summer, with 22 homes in Pensford and Compton Dando benefiting from a range of upgrades which saw their energy efficiency rating improve from D to B.
The estimated reduction of carbon emissions across all the homes every year is roughly equivalent to the amount that would be produced from driving around the world more than 10 times or leaving a 100W light bulb on for 275 years.
The project was featured on ITV’s Tonight programme in November 2024, with Curo customers Robin and Lucy White talking about the difference the improvements had made to their lives. Robin told the show that since the work had been completed, their electricity bill had almost halved.
He said: “I can say quite categorically that our house is much warmer than it was two years ago. And the money that we have saved on those electricity bills has helped enormously.”
A second project involving 74 homes in Bath and Bristol is due to be completed next month.
It is hoped that the first phase of this latest project will be completed by the summer.
