ENERGY provider npower and Redditch Council have teamed up to help reduce the running cost of the councils 6,000 properties, including their sheltered housing stock.

The work will take around five years to complete and is costing £5.5million.

The council needed to complete a programme of electrical re-wiring and instructed npower to carry out this work.

npower decided to upgrade the electrical system rather than carry out a full rewire, which saved the council around £1,200 for each property on installation costs. This was found to be the best way of carrying out the work, as it limited the disturbance for the tenants.

npower has also installed special LED lighting to a communal area in a sheltered housing property, creating a lighting cost saving of around 60 per cent.

Over the next five years it will also look to extend this to other communal areas in sheltered housing schemes. There has also been a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year repairs service provided by npower for all tenants' emergency call outs.

Peter Vamplew, housing capital manager for Redditch Council, said: "npower is an excellent contractor to work for our authority, with works always delivered on time and within budget.

"Complaints are to a minimum and npower has an excellent track record with customer care, any rare complaint is dealt with as a matter of urgency in a professional manner."