A specialist lettings agency claims it is the first in the UK to only use renewable energy in the accommodation it handles.

Student Housing, which provides homes to undergraduates in Lincoln and Nottingham, wants to move all its managed properties to a renewable provider. 

Later this month it will ask its 1,300 tenants to vote to agree to a switch to a renewable energy provider – solar, wind, hydro, biomass or tidal.

In the last 12 months, Student Housing’s utility bill for its portfolio of over 500 properties exceeded £500,000. 

“We use our bulk buying power to ensure that our electricity and gas rates are amongst the lowest on the market” says Harry Conti, director of Student Housing.

One energy firm predicts that Student Housing will save 544 tonnes of CO2 in the next 12 months by moving all of its managed properties to renewable energy – that’s the equivalent of planting 435,000 trees.

The agency manages over 450 properties in Lincoln, working with both private and institutional landlords and investors. It opened its Nottingham office in May this year.