The £1.6m Arbed grant will help to fund a £2.3m programme of energy efficiency improvements to both Charter’s 124 homes and other private/public sector housing in Markham. Proposed Arbed measures include cavity insulation, insulated external render, solar hot water and photovoltaic panels. Additional funding is being sought by Warm Wales and NPower from the Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP) to pay for other measures, including home energy assessment surveys, loft insulation, new gas connections and central heating systems for solid fuel properties, upgrades for existing heating systems, and real time energy use display units.

The Markham project will run from April 2010 to March 2011, The project is also seeking to create training and employment opportunities for local people, including three Community Energy Wardens, funded via the Future Jobs Fund.

‘Arbed’ (meaning ‘Save’) is a £30 million fund sourced primarily from the Strategic Capital Investment Fund (SCIF) and the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (the initiative is also known as the ‘Strategic Energy Performance Investment Programme’). Phase 1 of Arbed is focused specifically on energy efficiency improvements to homes in economically deprived communities within the Heads of Valleys area.

Key facts:

• Total properties in Markham: 624
• Total number of proposed measures: 2,154
• Total cost of programme: £2,320,598
• Total Arbed funding granted: £1,600,000
• Additional funding from Community Energy Savings Partnership (CESP), Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT), and Charter contribution.
• Total potential energy bill savings to homes in Markham: £169,129 per annum
• Lifetime CO2 saving as a result of improvements to homes in Markham: 24,738 tonne