Establishing community owned, low carbon heat initiatives in rural Northumberland
Reheat has been playing a key role in supporting the region’s net zero ambitions through its work in low carbon heat for rural communities. This initiative is called Nordheat (Northumberland District Heating), a collaborative effort between Reheat, Community Action Northumberland and the Rural Design Centre to inform, promote and develop community district heating schemes in the region.
Nordheat has been established as a practical solution for heat decarbonisation at scale and is one of the region’s first active projects to focus on stimulating the deployment of rural district heating owned by communities. The importance of this is particularly clear in Northumberland, which has 33,882 off gas grid properties, most of which have demonstrably poorer energy performance and are reliant on higher-cost sources of heating.
Nordheat’s first project is working with the Haydon Bridge Development Trust to understand current energy use in homes and businesses and gathering public opinion on ways to decarbonise the village with the potential for implementing district heating. It will also assess the benefits community ownership could deliver as part of a wider agenda to support the just transition and address fuel poverty.
Visit the Nordheat website: nordheat.org.uk.
