Stonewater reports bills cut by almost £240 at Axbridge homes as Greenoak centre hosts event

Stonewater has told a Greenoak Centre of Excellence event in Woking that technology at its Mendip View development in Axbridge cut customers' average energy bills by almost £240 between 2023 and 2025.

The housing association said the fall came even though average consumption rose by "over 1,250kw" during the same period, because residents felt more comfortable putting their heating on.

The event, titled 'Driving Innovation for Housing – Shaping the Future Together', was held at the WWF Living Planet Centre in Woking, Surrey, and brought together housing associations and industry partners to examine how technology is being used to improve sustainability, Stonewater said in an announcement published on 2 November 2026.

James Bradbury, Chief Investment Officer at Stonewater, said: "Through the Greenoak Centre of Excellence, we have an opportunity to accelerate the provision of truly sustainable social housing by working together as a sector."

Bradbury said Stonewater's target is net zero by 2050 across its operations and that it wants to share the challenges and learnings it is experiencing along the way.

The event

Bradbury joined Guy Marks, Director and National Co-Head of Surveying at Taylor Lewis, and Lee Slade, Director at Ashcot, in a panel session.

Organisations Stonewater has collaborated with also presented. The Ecofill Group gave a session on decarbonising construction methods, Travis Perkins covered sustainable design and Ridge & Partners offered advice on planning retrofit at scale.

Mendip View

Mendip View is a Stonewater development of 20 affordable homes in Axbridge, Somerset, designed to achieve A-rated energy efficiency.

The homes include Wondrwall heating systems alongside electric car charging points and PV panels. Stonewater describes Wondrwall as a self-learning system that adapts a home's lighting, heating, hot water and security to residents' routines and living habits.

The almost £240 figure reported at the Woking event covers the period from 2023 to 2025. In 2023 Stonewater projected that the development would use over 110,000kWh less energy a year than similar gas-heated houses, and that customers could save up to £23,000 a year in total compared with standard gas heating systems.

In July 2024 Stonewater said the Axbridge site had seen carbon emissions and running costs more than halved compared with a traditional site.

Rhys Bevan, Stonewater's Environmental Sustainability Business Partner, said at the time: "The Wondrwall technology works well for our customers, but it needs to be part of a larger, well-thought-out system."

The centre

Greenoak Housing Association, which operates more than 550 homes in Surrey and Sussex, became a subsidiary of Stonewater Group on 31 December 2022.

When the partnership was made official, Stonewater said it would create a new national centre of excellence for zero carbon development and retrofit.

Stonewater now describes the Greenoak Centre of Excellence as an initiative to identify and highlight the most effective routes for the housing sector to reach a zero-carbon future. Its Biodiversity in Housing Network held a webinar on 24 September 2025.

Stonewater says it is one of the largest social housing providers in the UK, with 40,000 homes for more than 93,000 customers. Its 2026-2030 sustainability strategy continues its work towards net zero by 2050, in line with the government's target.

The association said the centre is set to continue expanding and developing over the next five years.