Manchester City Council has secured more than £19m of funding for schemes to retrofit 11 council-owned buildings to make them more energy efficient.
The £19.1m funding represents the largest council allocation among £78.2m awarded to Greater Manchester, as part of a joint bid co-ordinated by Greater Manchester Combined Authority, through the Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
These 11 schemes will collectively save an estimated 2,000 tonnes carbon emissions a year – around 40% of the target saving for council-owned buildings by 2025 – as well as saving thousands of pounds on the buildings’ running costs.
Manchester Aquatics Centre and the National Cycling Centre are among the high profile venues which will benefit from the funding.
Other leisure venues also on the list are Arcadia Library and Leisure Centre, East Manchester Leisure Centre, Hough End Leisure Centre, Moss Side Leisure Centre, North City Family and Fitness Centre and Wythenshawe Forum. The Sharp Project in Newton Heath, The Space Project in West Gorton and the Zion Arts Centre in Hulme complete the list.
The main focus of the programme will be a combination of energy efficiency measures, renewable energy generation and switching heating systems from gas to electricity (with a mixture of air source and ground source heat pumps being installed.)
Each project is ready to go and the Council will look to start entering into contracts later this month, with work getting underway as soon as possible.
Councillor Angeliki Stogia, Executive Member for Environment, said: "This is fantastic news and a really significant amount of funding for the city.
"It is another boost for our drive to cut the Council's direct carbon emissions by 2025 as part of the transition towards becoming a zero carbon city.
"The improvements enabled by this funding will not only remove thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, they will also cut running costs for leisure centres, libraries and public buildings to help them have a sustainable future.
“Retrofit schemes like this not only benefit the environment but also the city’s economy, and we believe they can play an important role in the city’s recovery from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.”