Manchester City Council will receive £4.9m in government funding to reduce carbon emissions of council-owned buildings, such as the National Football Museum.
The Council will be adding in a further £1m to go towards decarbonising the city’s publicly owned buildings, making up an overall fund of nearly £6m.
Funding has been awarded through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) Public Sector Decarbonisation scheme, with money going to councils across the country.
It’s hoped the project will put Manchester closer to its goals of halving carbon emissions by 2025 and becoming net-zero by 2038.
Cllr Tracey Rawlins, Executive Member for Environment for Manchester City Council, said: ‘Council buildings are our biggest source of direct emissions. Taking action to retrofit these buildings and significantly improve their energy efficiency is one of the ways we are facing up to the urgent challenge of climate change.
‘I am pleased that we have been able to secure further funding to support this ambition. We will continue to pursue the potential for retrofitting, whether for our buildings or the city’s wider housing stock.’
Previously, the Council was awarded £19.1m through the scheme and work has already begun on 13 buildings in the city, including the National Aquatics Centre, National Cycling Centre and Town Hall Extension.
This round of funding will be mainly used to install air source heat pumps, while solar panels and LED lights will be put in place where appropriate.
Other buildings due to benefit from the scheme include Hulme’s Claremont Resource Centre, Harpurhey district social services offices, The Place on Platt Lane in Fallowfield and Our Central Park in East Manchester.
Two locations in Wythenshawe will undergo work too, at the Hall Lane Resource Centre and Wythenshawe Active Lifestyle Centre.
In related news, councillors aren’t confident their authorities will meet self-imposed net zero targets, a study by energy company E.ON and the Local Government Chronicle has found.
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