A WORCESTER company is playing a major part in a new BBC programme highlighting the need for greener homes.

The Mark Group, home efficiency experts, is to be the broadcaster's environmental technology consultant in a project to highlight how people can become greener.

The BBC Breakfast programme is helping the Hawksworth family, of Castle Donnington, to reduce the effect their home has on the environment by installing a series of energy-saving measures, and turned to the Mark Group for advice on the best solutions available to them.

Mark Group director Bill Rumble explained live on air that loft and cavity wall insulation would be the best first steps to reducing the Hawksworths' carbon footprint, and talked viewers and presenter Declan Curry through the process of installation.

"We were approached by BBC producers asking if we would help them make a reasonably large family home more environmentally and economically friendly," Bill explained.

"We sent one of our surveyors over to the house and it was very clear that energy costs were going through the roof and the walls through lack of proper insulation.

"We were filmed installing both loft and cavity wall insulation and then I spoke on the programme about how effective this relatively cheap and easy technology is at lowering the cost of domestic heating.

"The Hawksworths can expect to save about £300 a year on their gas bill, and that is investment payback in 18 months. We will continue to work with the BBC to look at other technologies that could reduce the house's consumption of electricity."

Mark Group has developed into the UK's leading provider of domestic energy creation and saving solutions.

It specialises in electricity generating photovoltaic panels and wind turbines, hot water provision from solar and ground heat pump technology.