Gas heating systems in Kenilworth's Jubilee House are to be ripped out and replaced with more efficient electrical heat pumps to help cut carbon emissions.

Members of Warwick District council's cabinet were told at their meeting last week that the work was needed for a number of district council-owned properties, including Jubilee House, by the end of September with the majority of the money coming from central government coffers.

Owned by the district council, Jubilee House is home to Kenilworth Town Council, the Kenilworth and Southam MP's office, and Net Visibility.

As well as the building in Kenilworth, Newbold Comyn Sports Pavilion, and Leamington's Glasshouse Restaurant and Temperate House will also have works completed.

The total cost of the work will be £902k of which nearly £745k has been allocated to the council from the public sector decarbonisation fund. The remainder will be funded from the council's own climate action fund.

Contractors have already been appointed but councillors were told that although the new heating systems would cut the council's carbon emissions by around eight per cent, there would be no short-term savings on heating bills.

A report drawn up ahead of the meeting explained: "In the short term, the proposed works are expected to increase the cost of heating within the three buildings by a total of approximately £25,000 per annum, with the vast majority of this falling on Jubilee House.

"Although the total energy demand of the new schemes is lower, electricity prices are currently significantly higher than gas prices. This results in an increased revenue cost.

"Whilst it is not possible to be certain about future energy costs, the Government energy strategy seeks to phase out gas heating systems and replace them with low carbon systems such as electric heat pumps. In this context it would be reasonable to expect the cost gap between electricity and gas to narrow in the next few years and potentially for gas prices to be higher than electricity.

"It is therefore proposed that the increased revenue costs for 2021/22 and 2022/23 are not passed on to the tenants of these buildings and are covered by the climate action fund."

The report added that if the price difference between gas and electric remained the same then some of the increased cost would have to be passed on to tenants from April 2023.

Cllr Ian Davison (Green, Leamington Brunswick) congratulated officers on securing such a large amount of government money but raised another issue.

He said: "It appears that very little insulation is being done at the same time so that's not great. Part of our concern is when, I hope rather than if, good insulation is done – particularly at Jubilee House – the air-source heat pump may be bigger than required.

"Well done officers but if there can be a little bit of tweaking as the procurement proceeds to get some insulation in that would be fantastic."