Hornsea 3 Community Fund

We’re working with a new VIY partner for 2024 – the Hornsea 3 Community Fund. This is part of the community engagement programme for Ørsted’s Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm, located off the Norfolk coast and further north off the Yorkshire coast. When it is operational by 2027, it will be capable of generating 2.9 GW of green electricity, enough to meet the average daily needs of over 3.3 million homes.

Here we’re working in Great Yarmouth, our VIY projects all focused on retrofit works to help boost energy-efficiency and reduce operational costs in community buildings on the Norfolk coast, whilst also delivering progressive green skills critical to the growing sustainability sector, including the chance to gain green skills accreditations including:

City & Guilds 

– Entry Level 3 in Environmental Awareness

NOCN (National Open College Network)

– Level 1 Award in Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

– Entry Level 3 Award in Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

This builds on retrofit and green skills work we’re also delivering with Leicester City Council, Nottingham City Council and projects like Blackwell Adventure in Redditch – and will play a major part in our next three year strategy from 2025 and beyond.

Here’s a round-up of our work with Hornsea so far.

Cadet Hut, Gorleston

This is a space used by the local Army Cadet Force, a national youth organisation supporting the UK’s Ministry of Defence and The British Army. As a voluntary organisation, they run on low budgets, gathering, training and spending time together in this very old wooden hut, which can be very cold in the winter time and takes a lot of energy/money to heat. Here we cladded the external skin of the hut with insulation and new boarding, and fitted energy-efficient lights. As a result of our works, the Hut is projected to achieve approximately 35% energy savings, equating to £400 per year. Additionally, the recent interventions have enhanced its EPC rating from C71 to B48.

“Thank you for all the hard work from the team on this project. The hut has been in use this evening and instead of having both heaters running and still being cold the Cadets have only had to use one heater and the building was at a good temperature – and stayed warm! This project will go a long way to providing a warm space where our Cadets can meet and by having a space that remains warm even in winter, we can offer activities to more young people in the area.”

Cadet Hut, Gorleston

Caister Bowls Club

This space acts as the clubhouse for the Bowls Club, but wishes to serve a larger part of the community, to help reduce loneliness and improve community wellbeing. Here, to help reduce their energy costs for a club run on a shoestring budget by volunteers, we have fitted higher insulation boards to the external walls, closed up draughts, fitted lightbulbs with greater energy efficiency along with additional loft insulation. We also helped to replace the kitchen and redecorated throughout including new skirting boards. As a result, the Bowls Club is seeing a 30% energy saving, equating to £340 per year.

“Having managed the build of thousands of homes in my previous career, I’ve dealt with some retrofit projects in the past and know the importance of robust insulation in housebuilding to make them as energy-efficient as possible. To meet the UK’s Net Zero targets, we need more people, including the next generation, training and delivering practical green skills to help us build a more sustainable future. The VIY approach helps us do that – and it’s been great to see David and Dom, our Lead Mentors here in the East, helping to share insight and skills young people can take forward into green jobs in the future.”

Mick Loftus, VIY Project Manager with 40+ years in construction, East of England