Retrofitting

Improving our homes and buildings to make them fit for a zero-carbon future.

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What we need to do

Making sure our homes, workplaces and buildings in Greater Manchester are warm and comfortable uses a lot of energy especially in older buildings. To make sure we reduce the effect this has on our environment we need to make changes to how we heat and cool them. Using less energy and making them fit for the future.

To help us do this a new Retrofitting Task Force made up of the best minds in energy, education and infrastructure has been established with the goal of upgrading around 60,000 homes across Greater Manchester every year.

Measures including changing to renewable energy and heating. Not only will this reduce carbon issues, but it will reduce fuel poverty and create a market of skills and jobs worth around £5 billion.

What can you do?

Residents

  • Check your eligibility for energy advice, support, and house upgrades through our Feel the Benefit campaign.
  • Fit LED and low energy lighting, turn off appliances when not in use and draught proof your windows and doors.
  • Look to upgrade your home insulation. Check your loft insulation, replace any single glazed windows with double or triple glazing and fill cavity walls if your property has them.
  • If you’re a homeowner, think about whole home retrofit and the more advanced energy efficiency measures you can install, such as solid wall and floor insulation, especially if you are carrying out building works.

Businesses

  • Commit to reducing your energy demand for heating and cooling. Sign the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment today!
  • Get smarter with how you heat your premises. Upgrade your lighting and equipment.
  • If you lease your premises, consider greener, more energy efficient premises when current or future contracts require renewal.

Resources for residents

Quick tips to save energy

Follow the Energy Saving Trust’s tips and advice for straightforward ways to save energy, lower your bills and reduce your carbon footprint.

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LEAP Home Energy Help

LEAP is an energy and money saving service that is helping people keep warm during the colder months and reduce their energy bills without costing them any money.

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Reducing home heat loss

If you want to reduce your carbon emissions and keep your energy bills low, installing insulation or draught-proofing will reduce heat loss.

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Resources for businesses

The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment

The Commitment calls upon business, organisations, cities, states and regions to take urgent, ambitious and immediate climate action towards decarbonising the built environment.

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Bee Net Zero

Get the help you need to cut the carbon footprint of your business. Making it cleaner, greener and more profitable. Bee Net Zero takes a collaborative approach to helping businesses on their journey to becoming net zero.

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Journey to Net Zero

Build your roadmap to a sustainable future.

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Standing up for domestic retrofit suppliers in Greater Manchester
Tolu Omideyi explains how the Business Growth Hub’s Green Technologies and Services advisors are helping local suppliers get fair access to domestic retrofit opportunities in Greater Manchester.
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Air Source Heat Pumps

Air source heat pumps are a proven technology allowing you to generate your own renewable heat. They are a low carbon way of heating your home, potentially saving you money on your fuel bills, especially if you’re replacing electric storage heaters, oil, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), or coal.

Find out more

Related Content

Retrofitting Task Force to drive forward plans for low-carbon homes across Greater Manchester
Published: 09/08/2021
News
Retrofitting Task Force to drive forward plans for low-carbon homes across Greater Manchester
To date, the GMCA has been awarded £27m by Government for the scheme, delivered in partnership across the city-region with E.ON.
Read
Retrofitting scheme extended to help residents save on bills with £10,000 grants
Published: 09/08/2021
News
Retrofitting scheme extended to help residents save on bills with £10,000 grants
The Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme, managed by the GMCA, provides grants of up to £10,000 for energy efficiency improvements for low-income households
Read
Green upgrades for Greater Manchester public buildings with £78m decarbonisation fund
Published: 09/08/2021
News
Green upgrades for Greater Manchester public buildings with £78m decarbonisation fund
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) awarded £78m through the Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme
Read
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Take action…

To make a big change, we must all take small actions. Becoming greener and making an impact is easier than you might think. We have put together a range of blogs, articles, toolkits and checklists to help you make a start.

Explore resources

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Our aim is to start changing the habits of families in Greater Manchester by getting them to ‘borrow’ rather than ‘buy’ brand new toys. We’re making sure that toys can be reused again and again by children who need and want them – and they are not just sitting in a cupboard or under someone’s bed.

Kim from That Toy Thing

The best part of upcycling is that old furniture is often better made than the equivalent flat-packed furniture we get today and with a little bit of time, love and care, you can create a completely unique piece of furniture for your home that no one else will have. I also love that these pieces of furniture have a history of their own and through transforming and updating them we can breathe a new lease of life into them.

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Jo Kennedy, Coordinator of the Great Manchester Wetlands Partnership

The reason I signed up to the Green Homes Grant scheme was two-fold, selfishly the measures will add value to the properties and make them more valuable in the future. But more importantly it benefits the tenants, keeping them warmer and prevents problems like damp and condensation. Ultimately measures like external wall insulations should keep tenants happier and ensure they remain in the house for longer.

Neil, Rochdale property owner

We used to think we didn’t have enough time to shop on our local market because we were working; how wrong we were?  We discovered it is an amazing place to shop for plastic free. We swapped tea bags for tea leaves and coffee jars for beans which we buy from The Market Grounds on Ashton Market – well worth a visit as the homemade cakes are delicious. All the stall holders have been amazing, not one of them minds us taking our containers to be filled with meat from the butchers. We get our bread, cheese, fruit and veg from the market too.

Julie from Ashton-under-Lyne

Kat Mulhall, Events Manager at Victoria Baths Trust in Manchester

Although becoming carbon neutral is important to our organisation, it’s a lot of work for a small team to put the measures into place. The Journey to Net Zero course has given me practical, step-by-step advice that has made it easy for me to lay the foundations for our organisation to be able to take action and achieve our goal of becoming carbon neutral.

Kat Mulhall, Events Manager at Victoria Baths Trust in Manchester

Kat Mulhall, Events Manager at Victoria Baths Trust in Manchester

The Business Growth Hub has given us focus and extra knowledge. They’ve helped us form the base to grow sustainably and work efficiently as a team while making us conscious of our environmental impact as a business.

 

Ollie Birchall, Founder of Nutri Bar

I’ve not really been a cyclist throughout my life, more of a runner to be honest. And certainly not commuted. But I just thought if I’m going to change, surely now is the moment to change. I’m feeling the personal benefits of doing it. You just feel better when you come into work. It clears your head. There are benefits of cutting congestion, cleaning up the air. Everyone benefits when people cycle.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester

We think our water fountain is INCREDIBLE, it’s the perfect place for people to ‘refill’ and help themselves to any of the free edibles we’ve got growing in Market Place. We’re so grateful to all the organisations that helped make this happen. Alongside the plastic free motion that was passed by council and helped us achieve our first Surfers Against Sewage objective and in turn our Plastic Free Community status, it shows real commitment in reducing plastic waste and supporting our community.

 

Pete Fillery, Plastic Free Rammy and Incredible Edible Ramsbottom

I guess I’ve always been what you would call a conscious consumer. I’ve always detested plastic bags, all of my skin care products at home are plastic-free, vegan, and sustainable. My toothbrush is made of bamboo, there’s no plastic anywhere in the house. Everything in the salon has to be vegan – that was the first rule for me. We started with one brand of haircare products that was vegan, organic, and Fairtrade, but the distributor in the UK was wrapping all of the deliveries in plastic, and it felt really needless, so we ditched them.

 

Rachael, Gronn eco-salon in Bury

Although becoming carbon neutral is important to our organisation, it’s a lot of work for a small team to put the measures into place. The Journey to Net Zero course has given me practical, step-by-step advice that has made it easy for me to lay the foundations for our organisation to be able to take action and achieve our goal of becoming carbon neutral.

 

Kat Mulhall, Victoria Baths Trust, Manchester

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