BARTON is the next stop in a £10.3m scheme to install solar panels on the roof of every Oxford City Council home.

The Energy Future Programme has already seen 165 Rose Hill properties get new insulation and 30 homes fitted with solar panels.

It is hoped that the project will be introduced in Barton in January, subject to contracts being finalised.

The city council said about 45 of its properties will get improved insulation and about 100 will be fitted with solar panels, with £500,000 set aside specifically for Barton.

The vision is eventually to have solar panels on each of the council’s 7,800 homes.

However the council said it could not be “precise” about how many homes would get solar panels at this time, but added the aim is to improve as many as possible with the budget given.

Head of housing at the city council Stephen Clarke said Barton was a priority for the rollout of the solar scheme next year.

He said: “We will be doing more than 100 solar PVs by April 1, 2016 and which houses they are placed on will be based on technical considerations, such as which way their roofs face.

“The rollout in Rose Hill has been very useful, because we have learnt that even a slight orientation difference on a property can make a difference.”

Mr Clarke said the council wanted to see if it could work with landlords to get more solar panels on the estate roofs.

He said: “An example is we want to see if we can do whole terraces together. We could say, for instance, that if we are in your street doing council properties, then you could pay to have it done at the same time.”

Improvements to the properties will also include insulating lofts and walls to reduce heat loss.

Solar panels will be fitted with a battery, so that energy generated during the day can be stored and used at night.

Martin Scarrott, 49, of North Way, Barton, welcomed the scheme.

He said: “I would welcome anything to save electricity and power. It is a good to lower energy bills too.

“Solar panels are very easy to look after, you don’t have to knock around with them. I have solar lights in my garden and they work well.

“Anything to bring down electricity and gas bills is ideal.”

About £1.95m from the Housing Revenue Account will be spent on the scheme in Oxford for 2015/16, with between £2.54m and £2.64m planned in each of the three years after.

City council board member John Tanner said that it was the “dream” to have solar panels on all 7,800 council homes in Oxford.

He said: “The battery technology can store energy that is made from the sun in daytime and can be use in the evening for residents to cook in the evening.

“Barton is the next stage and depending on finances, we will take it to other parts of the city.”