Queen’s Park low carbon zone (Westminster)

The Queen’s Park low carbon zone consists of mostly residential housing with a range of building types including a housing estate, sheltered housing and a conservation area. There are 1,336 households, the majority of which are in social housing.

Activities are based on a package of carbon saving measures developed and delivered by a partnership of the local authority, private sector businesses and community organisations.

Activities:

• The zone has seen the upgrade of a community heating system which delivers reductions of 130t CO2 per annum. Work is also underway to install cavity wall insulation in an estate of 400 homes. Community engagement has included roll-out of Carbon Conversations and partnership with London Sustainability Exchange and Paddington Development Trust to deliver an Energise London pilot.
• The zone will be the focus of a major photovoltaic (PV) project, with the council letting a contract to use private finance and the Feed-in Tariff to install PV on the large residential and the non-residential buildings in the zone. This equates to inward investment in the zone of over £3m.
• A fuel switching project for 300 flats - from inefficient electric storage heaters to gas boilers – is planned for 2011 and will deliver at least 300t CO2 per annum. This will make a significant reduction in fuel bills.
• Audits of local schools, community buildings and SMEs have been undertaken and funding for the public buildings is available through the borough’s Salix fund, with works planned for 2011-12.