Regenda Shortlisted in National Awards

Published by Lucy Bradwell for The Regenda Group in Housing and also in Communities, Environment

North West housing provider The Regenda Group has been shortlisted in the Sustainable Housing Awards 2012, organised by Inside Housing magazine and its sister publication Sustainable Housing.

Regenda was shortlisted in the ‘Energy Saving Initiative of the Year’ and ‘Community Involvement and Engagement Award’ categories for its Neighbourhood Energy Challenge which saw residents in Birkenhead and Tranmere compete against each other to reduce their energy bills over ten weeks.

Regenda’s Environmental Officer, Sarah Thomas said: “Twenty households took part in the competition which aimed to help our residents find ways to cut their bills at a time when the cost of energy is having a real impact on their lives, and hopefully have some fun at the same time.” 

Resident Marie Burns from Birkenhead claimed the prize of £600 of energy efficient electrical goods, which will help her to continue saving, funded by the Scottish Power Energy People Trust.  Marie reduced her energy usage significantly during the competition, saving energy equivalent to making 20 cups of tea an hour compared to the average UK household. 

Marie said: “I must have saved between £40 and £50 during the competition and I couldn’t believe the difference.  I was making sure all of the televisions were off during the day.  I’d wait until my son went to work and then turn the TV off at the wall in his room. Just turning your TV and DVD off from standby will save £2.40 per week.  It was so easy to make the changes.”

The awards recognise the best “green” social housing projects constructed in the UK, and the organisations responsible for them. The trophies will be presented at a suitably “eco” awards ceremony where the menu has been selected with minimum food miles and all the main ingredients have come from across the UK on Friday 19 October at the Hilton Hotel on London’s Park Lane.

Jess McCabe, Editor of the Sustainable Magazine said: ‘Now in their fifth year, the Sustainable Housing awards 2012 have, once again, been inundated with entries from the leading green organisations featuring the most innovative and impressive projects in the UK. It is a fantastic achievement for Regenda’s Neighbourhood Energy Challenge to be shortlisted in the face of such fierce competition.’

The Regenda Group is a leading housing and regeneration organisation, with 12,000 properties across the North West providing homes for more than 25,000 people.