Green Lane in Leeds is living up to its name after cutting carbon emissions in a scheme to improve household energy savings.
The Green Streets challenge has seen families in the eight participating roads across the country reduce their energy use by up to 30%, organisers British Gas said.
The scheme has seen eight families in each of the streets - which were picked beca
use they had "green" in their name - given £30,000 per road to implement energy efficiency measures ranging from insulation to solar panels.
Five months into the programme, the participants have managed to cut their emissions by 20% and achieve up to 30% cuts in energy, while some households have managed to reduce their gas consumption by half, British Gas said.
Residents in Leeds came out on top with overall energy reductions of 29.32% since the challenge began in January.
British Gas said if all UK households were to follow suit, it could deliver energy bill savings of £4.6bn.
The company said rising fuel costs are shortening the pay-back time of energy saving initiatives, and £1 in every £3 we spend heating our homes is wasted due to poor insulation.
Think-tank IPPR, which is monitoring the scheme, recommended green loans to pay for energy saving equipment and a roll-out of the neighbourhood energy advisers scheme in which British Gas advised the households on how to cut their electricity and gas use.
Phil Bentley, managing director of British Gas, said: "The UK now buys energy on the world market and competes toe to toe with countries prepared to pay higher prices than we've seen before.
"Reducing energy consumption is the single most important thing households can do to reduce bills and cut emissions."
The full article contains 297 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
