United Living and Wolverhampton Homes have been working in close partnership for over 15 years to upgrade the City of Wolverhampton council’s housing stock.
Through a Strategic Construction Partnership until 2028, United Living is delivering approximately £15 million per annum of home improvements and new building developments across the city.
We are also delivering the large-scale regeneration of the Heath Town estate, including internal & external refurbishment of existing housing stock, thermal cladding, new play areas, f ire safety works, energy efficiency turn-key solutions and extensive landscaping. Creating great new places to live and a community that residents can be proud of.
We are committed to community-led place making. This means residents are at the heart of any regeneration project. The main challenge has been resident engagement. More than 40 languages are spoken among the residents, and the fact that not all are fluent in English means engagement in formal consultations is typically low. A dedicated Heath Town community liaison team has been onsite throughout the project, and working collaboratively with Wolverhampton Homes, we invested time and resources to understand the residents’ objectives and ensure our approach was built around their priorities.
The £150 million redevelopment project in Heath Town won the UK Housing Award for best neighbourhood transformation in 2022.
As part of this partnership, we are retrofitting 210 properties across the city to comply fully with PAS 2030/2035. The retrofit programme is part of Wolverhampton Council’s ‘Greener Homes & Warmer Residents through Property Retrofit’ project. It aims to reduce residents’ energy bills while decreasing the carbon emissions from its social housing stock, contributing to its net zero carbon goals.
The retrofit programme takes a whole-house fabric-first approach. It includes the installation of external wall insulation (EWI), new loft insulation, energy-efficient windows, and doors, keeping the homes warmer for longer, and reducing the energy needed to heat them. New ventilation systems have also been fitted, helping air circulate, reducing the risk of dampness and mould, and improving air quality.
The £6 million project has improved each home’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating from D to C. As well as creating much-improved living environments, residents can expect their bills to be reduced, saving them as much as £800 per year.
To provide continued power supplies for the next 30-plus years, we are constructing a new energy centre to give power to the surrounding estate of high, mid and low-rise properties. From fully remediating the land, redirecting services, and commissioning all new pumps and monitoring equipment, the state-of-the-art facility will be completed in late 2024.
A wholly collaborative effort with our client, design and specialist subcontract partners has enabled us to progress in unison and to future-proof the estate for many years to come.
Whether you have a specific project in mind or if you’d like to find out more about the work we do and how we can help you, we’d love to hear from you.
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