Eighteen households on an Old Kent Road estate are set to get renewable heating systems, alongside a range of other ‘green’ heating measures, after a Southwark Council vote this week.
The Manor Grove council homes on the Tustin Estate will get air source heat pumps instead of their gas boilers, as well as insulated roof decking, wall insulation, solar panels, and double glazed windows.
The £700,703 needed to fund this came from developers – including Southwark Council itself – whose buildings do not meet the council’s environmental standards. The council’s green buildings fund has about £5.7 million in total.
Councillors voted to use the £700,000 for the Tustin Estate refurbishment at a planning meeting on Wednesday evening (September 14).
Tustin Estate on the Old Kent Road to be redeveloped after Southwark gets permission
It comes after earlier this summer the council voted to knock down and redevelop parts of the Tustin Estate, which is on the corner of Ilderton Road.
Southwark will build 690 new homes, of which 345 will be council flats – an increase of 143. Some 220 flats will be for outright private sale, 27 will be sold as shared ownership and 98 will be let at intermediate rents (80 per cent of market rate) for key workers.
The Manor Grove homes were already scheduled to be refurbished, as part of the same estate redevelopment. The energy improvement works come on top of that. Officers said in a report: “The homes are currently in overall poor condition with a range of issues including damp, roof leaks and damage to brickwork and concrete. The homes are highly energy inefficient and tenants experience high energy costs.
Southwark Council is paying into its own housing carbon offset fund
The refurbishment will be carried out by builders Bouygues, who also worked on Bermondsey’s Maydew House. Work is set to begin in spring next year and is likely to take at least eighteen months. Manor Grove residents will have to move out while builders refurbish their homes. The council said it would find them temporary accommodation on the estate.
Some £578,100 of Southwark’s green buildings fund has been released so far, for two separate projects: about £90,568 for Canal Grove Cottages just north of the Old Kent Road, and £487,532 to hire two climate change officers.