KEIGHLEY social housing group Incommunities has been shortlisted for a trio of national awards.

It is in the running for the top accolade in three categories of the SHIFT Awards – leading environmental honours for housing providers, recognising outstanding sustainability projects and performance.

Sections where the group is doing battle are Sustainability Team of the Year, New Build of the Year and Retrofit of the Year.

In the past year, Incommunities' sustainability team worked with partner organisations and in-house services on a string of environmental projects.

Help was provided to 2,100 residents to make home-energy savings and improve their recycling, over £60,000 was saved on the group's electricity and gas bills, £282,000 in match funding was secured for home cavity wall insulation and gas connection schemes – benefitting more than 400 households – and sustainability training was given to staff.

The team also worked with Incommunities' development colleagues, Homes England and contractors to help provide 34 new energy-efficient affordable homes, each with an electric car charging point.

And an insulation scheme was carried out at 98 homes, with most of the costs covered by external funding.

Award winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on November 8.

Alexis Durrant, Incommunities' sustainability manager, said: "We are committed to making our assets and operations more sustainable and this trio of category shortlisting shows that the group as a whole is improving its performance on many fronts.

"Receiving recognition from the SHIFT Awards demonstrates that we are delivering benefits for our customers, including those in fuel poverty, our staff and as a business."

Angela Perry, the group's assistant chief executive (asset management), said the shortlisting was "excellent news".

She added: "Our sustainability team has a key role in helping the business to deliver high levels of energy-efficient performance, working with in-house teams and external agencies.

"The team and organisation is committed to improving our environmental footprint, identifying savings and bringing benefits for our customers.

"Fingers crossed that the organisation can celebrate deserved award success in a few weeks' time!"

SHIFT is the sustainability standard for the housing sector and is provided by Sustainable Homes.

It is an independent assessment and accreditation scheme, designed to demonstrate that organisations are delivering against challenging environmental targets.