London Borough of Greenwich

Pluming marvellous!

The latest figures show that more than six out of ten Greenwich homes now meet the Decent Homes standard. This means they are safer, warmer and more secure than ever before.

Decent Homes is a Government scheme that is bringing all Council housing up to a decent standard by 2010.

Work on Greenwich homes has included the upgrading boilers and central heating systems throughout a number of residential properties in the borough.

Significant progress

Cllr Maureen O’Mara, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services says: “On average, the Council has invested nearly £1million every week over the last three years to bring 60% of our housing up to Decent Homes standard.

“We’ve already made significant progress over the past few years and I’m confident that we can achieve our aim of 100% Decent Homes by December 2010.”

Making a difference to people’s lives

In 2003 less than 20% of Greenwich homes met the Decent Homes standard. In 2006 we reached 50% Decent Homes and have increased the figure by another 10% over the last year.

That means that over 8,000 households are already benefiting from the improvement works, which are making a real difference to people’s home lives, peace of mind and well being.

Some of the residents to benefit from these improvements live at Sowerby Close in Eltham, where all 108 flats have now had old and inefficient warm heating systems replaced with Worcester’s Greenstar 28i Junior boilers.

Each flat, now has easy to use heating controls, permanent hot water availability and a heating supply that is energy efficient and therefore means cheaper bills.

Mrs Fletcher is 93 and lives at Sowerby Close, she couldn’t be happier with her new heating. She said: “It’s wonderful, now I can get up to a warm house every morning which I’ve not been use to in the past. The controls are easy for me to use and my flat is the perfect temperature round the clock.”

Mrs. Fletcher had a set of radio frequency controls installed in her living room at a low level so they were easy for her to reach and the need for wires was alleviated.

An extra challenge for the installers at the Eltham development was caused by the unusual H shape of the three blocks of flats.

John Stone, Installation Manager at KT Heating, the contractor employed to fit the new central heating systems, said: “Each of the new boilers needed their own flue to release the excess steam safely outside. The problem was that the flues had to be placed facing each other in a narrow cove of the building. This means that if a significant number of the flat’s boilers were being used at the same time the cove would fill up with plumage. This would mean residents wouldn’t be able to open their windows facing the cove without lots of unpleasant steam entering their flat.”

The solution

John explained: “The problem was resolved with Worcester’s plume management kits, which are suitable for where flues enter enclosed spaces. The kits divert the steam safely into the atmosphere by extending pipework so that the plumage is not being released into the enclosed space.”

Trevor Hennessey, of the London Borough of Greenwich, said: “This is just one of many projects that involve us raising the standards of the homes we’re responsible for. We’re 100% committed to the installation of condensing boilers in all of our properties and we have and will continue to use Worcester boilers in our improvements.

“We specify Worcester boilers because they have a well established brand but more importantly they provide a quality, reliable product, with next day service, high levels of availability and excellent support facilities.”