Lincolnshire Housing Partnership (LHP) has won the Green Home Upgrade of the Year award at the Unlock Net Zero Awards, for its project that is helping to reduce its residents’ energy bills by up to £375 per year.

The social landlord, which owns 12,000 homes across the East Coast of Lincolnshire, was awarded for its Green Homes Upgrade project in partnership with E.ON Energy Solutions.

The LHP team aimed to increase EPC ratings to a C rating or higher, whilst improving the existing thermal comfort of customers’ homes, with 96% of the homes having a pre-existing EPC rating of D or below.

The £16 million project, which will continue until 2025, saw external wall insulation installed in 733 homes and air source heat pumps in a further 82 properties, helping to increase the energy efficiency of the existing homes and save on each household’s energy bills.

A joint customer engagement strategy between LHP, E.ON and Thrift Energy ensured that customer engagement remained at the heart of the Green Home Upgrade project throughout the retrofitting process, and received excellent feedback from its customers.

Daniel Wyer, Corporate Head of Property at LHP, said: “Not only will our Green Homes Upgrade ensure that many of our customers will benefit from lower energy bills and warmer homes, it also marks an important milestone in our Net Zero roadmap and wider carbon reductions.

“This is an award for the entire LHP team and our partners at E.ON and Thrift, and we’re extremely proud of what has been achieved, with our scheme being one of the largest external wall insulation projects using SHDF funding across the country.

“The key to this project’s success has been our approach to customer engagement, such as having in-person engagement events, and having the presence of a tenant liaison officer on site throughout the week.

The Unlock Net Zero Awards, hosted as part of the annual ‘Housing 2024’ conference held in Manchester on 26 June, recognise and champion progress towards decarbonisation for the UK housing and built environment sectors.