Energy efficient council homes recognised at awards

(Llys Elizabeth)

An energy efficient Rhyl council housing development has been recognised in the Local Authority Building Control (LABC) Awards for Wales.

Llys Elizabeth took home the winning award in the Best Small Social Housing Development category.

The project team who breathed new life into what was once the former town tax office for the Council consisted of Denbighshire Building Control, Denbighshire Design & Construction, Denbighshire County Council Housing & Community Service, Pave Aways Ltd, and Cadarn BRP, Hydroc/Stantec.

Designed to support living accommodation for people aged 55 and over, Llys Elizabeth saw the creation inside the building of a total of 12 new homes comprising 8 two-bedroom apartments and 4 one-bedroom apartments.

Each home was designed to offer high levels of energy efficiency to support the new tenants with the cost of living and help Denbighshire County Council and Wales achieve its targets of lowering carbon emissions.

Air source heat pumps were installed to help heat the water at lower costs and drive down the building’s carbon emissions. Solar panels were also installed on the outside car port to help generate energy and a Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery system was fitted to help reduce the heating and cooling demands of each of the homes.

These new Rhyl homes are part of Denbighshire County Council’s continuing commitment to tackling accommodation waiting times by addressing the need for more local housing provision.

Working in conjunction with their partners, the council’s building control team were successfully recognised for a further two projects in the Local Authority Building Control Awards for Wales, with Llys Awelon winning ‘Best Large Social Housing Development’ and Llysfasi College winning ‘Best Public or Community Building’ respectively.

Llys Elizabeth was one of three projects that the council’s building control team worked in conjunction with partners that successfully won regional awards for their specific category. Throughout the project, partners had a strong working relationship with the building control team to overcome any issues that arose on site, obtaining all necessary certification to allow final certification and the subsequent award nomination.  

Councillor Alan James, Lead Member for Local Development and Planning said:

“This nomination is a great reflection of the building control team and the service they provide in a competitive market. The success of these projects is largely based on great collaborative work between different council teams, under our one council approach and a strong working relationship with our external partners.

“We’re very proud to have received this reward and hope that these three sites will become real assets to our communities”.

Cllr Rhys Thomas, Lead Member for Housing and Communities, said:

“We are really pleased to receive this award, and I want to highlight the hard work of all the Council staff and partners for breathing life into this old tax building and making it a wonderful energy efficient home for all of our residents living there, which exemplifies our one council approach.

“We continue to work to make sure homes are available in Denbighshire to meet the needs of our residents. Llys Elizabeth met these needs by giving good accommodation that is affordable as well as offering the highest levels of build quality to support the lowering of energy use and reduce carbon emissions that will result in lower household bills.”

Llys Elizabeth will now go onto the UK LABC Awards in January.