HUNDREDS of council tenants in Blackburn and Darwen are set for a warmer winter, thanks to a £70,000 Norweb scheme.

The electricity company has stepped in with cash for energy-saving home insulation measures which, bosses say, will save householders on average £55 per year each on electricity bills.

Blackburn with Darwen Council had wanted to fit new insulation at the same time as it was fitting new heating systems in more than 500 flats, houses, maisonettes and bedsits on four Blackburn estates - Pearl Street, Montague Street, St Judes and Daisyfield.

But the authority lacked money to insulate all the properties and fit automatic controls on the storage heaters to make them more energy efficient.

Housing Director Phil Richards contacted Norweb, who are carrying out a two-year energy-saving programme to cut electricity usage in the North West. And the company agreed to contribute £70,000 to help pay for the work, due to be completed soon. Phil Richards said: "We were in a dilemma. With our limited funds we could either press ahead with the heating and leave the insulation indefinitely, or reduce the number of properties receiving heating and carry out the energy-saving improvements to far fewer dwellings.

"Thanks to Norweb, we were able to make far more progress with the energy efficiency measures and effectively double the number of homes we could improve.

"Not only will our tenants have more efficient heating systems, but they should see some reductions in their bills."

Glyn Trumper, Norweb energy efficiency manager, said: "We have been running many different energy-saving programmes for customers throughout the North West, one of which was an insulation scheme for social housing, so we were able to help the council out.

"Hopefully, we'll be running a similar scheme again in the future."

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