Help/ Advice needed

delerium

I hope this is the right board for this but I really need some advice or help on this.

I moved into my house last year and spent a very cold winter with storage heaters. I looked into the cost of getting Gas central heating but because of where the pipe is located it was going to cost £5000 to get the gas piped to the house and then the cost of central heating on top of that. Perturbed by this price as well as the unfairness of me having to shell that out and then the houses who the pipe would pass would then have to pay nothing to get the gas piped into their house, I looked up this site for grants and contacted my local council.

Well with the council on board they managed to get the gas company to quote for the whole street and get a grant to cover the majority of the cost, however of the 78 houses who don't have gas, only 10 (including me) expressed an interest in getting the gas piped in. I don't think it's lack of want or need but apathy at doing anything which astonishes me since a house exactly the same as mine but with gas and a smaller garden just sold for £22000 more than I bought mine for last year.

Anyway there was going to be a small cost of £200-£300 however the gas company are now saying they'll do the whole thing free if they get 20 households signing up to their gas central heating immediately. This appears to be a great deal but I personally had planned to save the money for the central heating and put it in when I could afford it...and I'm one of the keen ones. I have a lousy credit history so wouldn't get a loan for the money despite the woman at the energy saving trust saying she could get me an interest free loan.

Anyway I was wondering if there were any ideas out there that I could present to the council and gas company as an alternative which they might find acceptable?

Fire_Fox

Sounds like a bit of a dead loss TBH. Is your property decently insulated - double glazing, thick curtains, loft, cavity walls? You can have reasonably economical electric heating if you aren't heating half the street too.