Delivering affordable Passivhaus homes in the heart of Salford
Member Engagement Manager James Bryson reports from our recent member visit to Muse and Salix Homes’ Passivhaus development in Salford.
The Northern Housing Consortium had the pleasure of bringing members together to visit Muse and Salix Homes’ brand-new development, Greenhaus, in the heart of Salford. If you’re familiar with Salford, you’ll know that a brand-new block of apartments popping up is not that unusual. So, what makes Greenhaus so interesting?
Greenhaus is a Passivhaus building, meaning it has been built to the highest standard of construction and energy efficiency. Whilst awareness of Passivhaus is increasing, there have been very few projects delivered at this scale in the UK. Greenhaus is one of the first multi-storey certified Passivhaus buildings and the largest certified development in the North West.
It is a testament to both Muse and Salix’s forward thinking and commitment to sustainability that this block will be delivered. As we sat in Muse’s offices listening to Simon Hourihan (Project Director, Muse) and Phil Summers (Development Director, Salix) explain the ins and outs of the development, it became clear that they do not just see Passivhaus as just a nice-to-have, or something that is worth doing every now and again.
Why shouldn’t the housing sector be building to the highest possible standards for every single new home? As Salix’s CEO Sue Sutton has explained, Passivhaus is simply “good business” futureproofing their assets from future retrofit, providing good quality housing to those most in need, lifting people out of fuel poverty and meeting their carbon reduction targets.
It was fantastic to bring so many Northern housing providers together to learn about Passivhaus, and heartening to hear others are considering their own similar developments. Hopefully we will see many more homes like Greenhaus springing up across the North in the years to come.
Find out more by reading the Real Home, Real Change case study here.
