Manchester has been at the forefront of an experiment to improve the energy efficiency of homes, and the lives of those living in them.
The drive for more efficient methods of heating our home has benefits for all concerned parties; housebuilders have strict regulations they must meet to satisfy government criteria when it comes to efficiency.
For homeowners, better thermal insulation means less outlay on heating bills, and for the government, sustainable heating methods means an increased likelihood of meeting the carbon targets they have set for themselves to meet.
Whilst new homes are easy to make efficient, retrofitting into older housing stock presents a wholly different challenge.
Right here in Manchester, a project has already improved the lives of some residents ahead of the winter months. It isn’t the first time our city has been at the forefront of the environmental battle, with the Manchester Evening News reporting the council bought up 19 eco-friendly homes to let out as affordable earlier this year.
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The Great Places initiative is hoping to further help improve the lives of tenants by driving an experiment conducted on 28 homes on the Stretford Road Estate. In conjunction with insulation manufacturer Knauf, they are seeking to make homes warmer and cheaper to heat for residents, not just by ticking the boxes required by the Energy Performance Certificate. Sarah McClelland, Environmental Manager for Great Places, believes the EPC certificates are hitting targets, but not delivering results.
“On paper, they hit our internal targets, but in reality, we were getting phone calls of complaints saying the customers were struggling to heat their homes,” she told Inside Housing Magazine.
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“We even had an MP letter saying, ‘What are you going to do about this housing?’
“So, we realised that while on paper they looked like they were insulated, maybe, in reality, things weren’t working as well as they could have been.”
The first round of improvements made on the estate led to an average improvement of 31% across the properties, reducing annual heating bills for residents to the tune of £411. Those are certainly impressive savings and something other tenants on the estate may well benefit from going forward. Great Places is said to be using a much higher specification loft insulation going forward, making the project a success in the eyes of those directly benefitting.
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There are several methods a tenant or homeowners can use to improve their energy efficiency. Whilst insulation is one method being developed by Great Places, Environmental Journal explains how grants can help homeowners install new boilers with improved efficiency.
An efficient boiler uses less fuel to produce the same heat in the home, making it cheaper to run. The older your boiler is, the more likely it is to be inefficient and costing you money.
A new boiler installation guide by HomeServe outlines how a new boiler might not be as expensive as you think, with like-for-like replacements being relatively straightforward from a fitting perspective. With potential savings of hundreds of pounds per year, installing a new appliance might pay for itself very quickly indeed.
Even in older homes, simply replacing old for new is a straightforward job that need not break the bank. Whilst the Great Places project in Manchester does not cover new boilers, improved thermal properties on the estate could prompt some resident to investigate further measures to save themselves money, and help turn Manchester’s housing stock eco-friendly and even more energy-efficient.
Musical comedian Morgan Jay is coming to Manchester on his biggest ever UK tour
Danny Jones
Viral music-driven comedian Morgan Jay is returning to Manchester and the UK for his biggest ever transatlantic tour.
The crowd work specialist and social media star is coming back to our fair city once again early next year, having not long ago performed for a maiden Manc crowd.
That’s right: the bloke best known for performing silly improv songs on a ukulele for the majority of the set, not to mention being a little bit cheeky with his audience throughout, is coming to the AO Arena.
Entitled La Dolce Vita, this new tour – set to be the follow-up to his ongoing ‘Goofy Guy’ show – will be just his second performance here in 0161.
Have already got his current tour underway across North America, with more gigs coming up across Asia and Oceania later this year.
As for his next European leg, it kicks off early next year, and do you want to guess where he’s coming first? Yep, straight to us.
We’re almost certain he’ll be bringing that tiny little guitar and a healthy dose of autotune along with him, but you never quite know what you’re going to get…
Can you believe he grabbed her neck like that in public? not going to lie I kind of liked it. The Nashville show went crazy people were horny and having a good time. Tour dates below. 6/5 – Atlanta, GA 6/6 – Hollywood, FL 6/12 – Milwaukee, WI 6/14 – Prior Lake, MN 6/19 – Cherokee, NC 6/20 – Charleston, SC 7/2 – Ledyard, CT 9/12 – Los Angeles 9/17 – Los Angeles 9/25 – Maui 9/26 – Oahu October 3 – Tokyo October 5 – Taipei October 8 – Hong Kong October 11 – Abu Dhabi October 14 – Manila, PH October 17 – Sydney October 21- Auckland, NZ October 25 – Melbourne, AU October 29 – Brisbane, AU November 1- Adelaide, AU November 6 – Perth, AU November 11 – Jakarta, ID November 13 – Singapore, SG November 18 – Kuala Lumpur, MY November 21- Bangkok, TH November 27 – Mumbai, IN November 29 – Bengaluru, IN
You can see his full list of upcoming dates over here down below.
Morgan Jay UK tour dates – 2027
Thu 25 Feb – Manchester, AO Arena Sat 27 Feb – London, OVO Arena Wembley Sat 27 Mar – Glasgow, SEC Armadillo Thu 1 Apr – Birmingham, Utilita Arena Birmingham Sat 3 Apr – Cardiff, Utilita Arena Cardiff
As you can see, there’s only a handful of dates across Great Britain and Ireland, so we’ll consider it an honour not only to be on the schedule but to be first on the call sheet.
Tickets will be available for pre-sale starting on Wednesday, 27 May at 10am; meanwhile, general admission goes live this coming Friday, 29 May, also at 10am BST. You can get ready to grab yours HERE.
If you’ve not come across him before and you’re wondering whether his stuff is your cup of tea, you can watch his special shot in LA, among others, for free on YouTube.
Featured Images — Press shots (supplied via Live Nation)
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Bernardo Silva shares hilarious X-rated clash with John Stones before they were teammates
Danny Jones
This long weekend not only saw Man City manager and sporting legend Pep Guardiola bid goodbye to the club after a decade, but so did John Stones and Bernardo Silva, and the latter shared a hilarious story about an encounter before their bromance in blue.
Can’t lie, this one nearly made us spit out our tea when we first watched it…
Following the trio’s respective final games, this late May bank holiday Monday saw yet another City parade pass through Manchester, and as the party continued over at the Etihad Campus and Co-op Live for the afterparty, the boys got up on stage to say some parting words.
In Silva’s case, he chose to share, rather fittingly, some very choice words indeed, as he talked about his time playing against Stones when he was still in France.
From ‘little soft c**t’ to brothers lifting trebles together… football heritage.
Safe to say no one was expecting that particular expletive to come out of his mouth – we reckon not even most of the squad themselves.
During the Yorkshireman‘s first season at Manchester City, he came up against the creative midfielder in the Champions League when he was still playing at Ligue 1 side AS Monaco.
As you can see in the clip above, while it wasn’t the friendliest of exchanges back then, they soon buried the hatchet and chalked it off as nothing more than football.
Both fierce competitors in their own right, they look to be plenty soft with each other off the pitch ever since they became teammates.
So much so, in fact, that the duo ended up being the face of a pop-up Man City pub earlier this month, recreating the famous photo of the Gallagher brothers wearing the 1993/94 kits.
Credit: Manchester City FC (publicity pictures)
It’s plain to see in the clip how much love there is between the two, all these years later, and the story itself got a rapturous reaction from their peers and the crowd alike.
Silva has plenty of fans across Europe, both as a player and purely as a character; you only have to look at how Jack Grealish often reiterates his love for the Portuguese playmaker as a person and Premier League character, or even how pundits aligned with rival clubs like Gary Neville waxes lyrical about him.
And then we come to Pep himself.
Guardiola was rightfully given a fantastic guard of honour at the stadium itself on Sunday, with his speech making for an emotional moment for all those in the stands and watching at home, and City supporters at the parade made sure to give him a proper send-off.
The Manc -
22nd September 2020 
