Twelve social housing associations in Liverpool have committed to a scheme which will see over 100,000 homes fitted with photovoltaic panels.

The panels will save social housing residents millions in reduced energy bills and will allow housing associations to benefit enormously from the Feed-In-Tariff scheme. The scheme allows homeowners to earn money from the solar energy generated by the panels.

Funds for the scheme will be paid for by social housing associations but will tenants will pay back the costs out of the savings from their energy bills.

Liverpool Mutual Homes chief executive Steve Coffey told 24dash.com that those in public sector housing jobs could be adding as much as £50 billion to the economy of the city.

He said: "The Liverpool City Region retrofit market is estimated to be in the region of £50 billion, which will provide a massive boost for the people and businesses in Merseyside in so many ways.

"The scheme will directly help reduce fuel poverty for tenants and carbon emissions for landlords, while the financial ramifications will provide a large number of skilled jobs creating training and social enterprise opportunities."

Inside Housing report that although social housing groups are concentrating on solar panels for the time being, there are plans to eventually address a whole range of retrofit options.