Melanie's delight at Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund improvement works in her home

“I didn’t even hesitate, I definitely wanted it done!”

Those were thoughts of one of our customers living in a home that was selected to be part of our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund programme.

We secured more than £6 million of government funding to improve the energy efficiency of nearly 600 of our homes.

Melanie in King’s Lynn had new windows and doors installed, a new heating system put in including an immersion heater and loft insulation added and said that she now saves around £200 per month.

She said: “It was all very quick and I was kept well informed about the process.

“All the work was fitted in around me as well, as I work full time, so they made appointments to suit me.

“I didn’t even hesitate, I definitely wanted it done! My old system was inefficient and astronomically expensive and I couldn’t afford to have it on in winter.

“It was costing me about £120 a week to have my heating on, which would have been more expensive than my rent. I’m now paying between £45 and £50 a week.”

Melanie added that it’s not just financially that she’s seeing the benefits of the energy efficiency works, but emotionally too.She said: “It was luxurious over the winter to have the heating on.

It sounds silly, but in previous years when it was minus six outside, we had no heating on and it was freezing.

“So, to have the heating on in the house was a pure luxury and was an emotional lift. It gets you down when you come home to your safe space and it’s freezing cold – it’s not a nice place to be.

“It’s been so nice to enjoy being at home and being warm and not worrying about being able to afford the heating.”

Melanie said all the contractors involved in completing the work at her home had been brilliant.

She added: “I’d absolutely recommend the SHDF project. The works we had done were big, but they did them really quickly.

“I’m in a three-bedroom house and we had all the windows and doors done in a day. They also left it tidy, respected my home and my personal space.

“I’d recommend it to anyone, 100 percent.”