Kensa Heat Pumps and Trent & Dove Housing have won the award for Best Client at the National Housing & Maintenance Forum (NHMF).

The awards scheme celebrates best practice in social housing maintenance and the NHMF’s aim is to set the standard for maintaining assets for social housing.

Kensa and Trent & Dove's retrofit ground source heat pump project was judged to be best at meeting residents’ needs in the provision of an asset management service and also demonstrated value for money.

The judges said: “This project demonstrates considerable energy savings for tenants. It has the potential to be replicated for schemes and estates which are off-grid. Well done.”

Described as ‘ground breaking’, the project featured the replacement of night storage heaters across 30% of Trent & Dove’s off-gas homes with ground source heat pumps manufactured by Kensa Heat Pumps.

The 193 units, a mixture of bungalows and flats, are connected to a unique 'micro' district heating system, allowing Trent & Dove to take control and transform the future of their local community with the benefits of greener, more affordable heating systems, which also provide a guaranteed annual return back for further investment into the community.

Commercial director of Kensa Heat Pumps, Chris Davis, said: “Kensa is delighted that Trent & Dove Housing has been awarded such an accolade, which is even more satisfying to know that it was voted for by housing sector peers.

“The success of any project as ambitious as this relies on the organisation and co-operation of the client to help overcome the everyday barriers and issues that come up. Together with the other project partners – J Tomlinson’s and Encraft – we built a strong client/contractor relationship, which gave Trent & Dove the confidence needed to extend the project to a second phase.”

This latest accolade builds on the industry recognition that the project has already gained, having won 'Community Heating Project of Year' at the Heating & Renewables Awards in 2015, and shortlisted for the Building & Energy Efficiency Awards 2015, the HVR Awards 2015 and the National Heat Pump Awards 2016.

Pictured R to L are: NHMF, Sarah Goodall (Investment and Procurement Manager, Trent & Dove Housing), Nick Sutton (Repairs Manager, Trent & Dove Housing), Chris Davis (Commercial Director, Kensa Heat Pumps)