A SIGNIFICANT investment of £195m in a zero-carbon council housing project has been approved.

The council house new build programme will see a £195m investment to create homes to a ‘zero-carbon standard’.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Cabinet also agreed to invest a total of £289m in making council-built properties more energy efficient – energy performance B at a minimum.

This investment will save 20,000 tons of carbon every year and the funding will run until 2032.

The council house new build programme aims to build 1,000 properties over the next 10 years and has already delivered 170 houses.

Cllr Richard Clewer, cabinet member for housing, said: “This decision puts energy efficiency at the heart of our council housing investment plans, both in terms of our new builds and our existing housing stock.

“These changes will not only help us lead the way in seeking to make Wiltshire carbon neutral by 2030 but will also deliver significant financial savings of up to £600 a year for our council house residents.

“We can now look forward to the improvements to existing housing stock beginning in April 2021, and we’re also planning to pilot the building of 20 new zero carbon affordable homes across three sites in the near future.”