What action, if any, has your LA taken to install energy efficiency or low carbon heat measures in social housing? Have these been installed to a satisfactory quality? What actions (if any) have your social housing partners taken?
We have been successful in upgrading domestic gas boilers to A rated efficient boilers across our stock and have trialled the retrofit of Air Source Heat pumps in several of our own properties and are including this in new homes projects going forward. We have plans to install our first communal ground source heat pump system in one of our New Homes for Neighbourhoods projects in 2022. The experience of air source heat pumps as a retrofit have been well received and successful, however these have been in place of failing, inefficient and expensive electric heating. We see the transition away from gas boilers over the next 10 to 15 years as possibly the biggest challenge we face in meeting our decarbonisation plans and are developing strategies to support this through our heating installation supply chain.
Do you have easy access to the information/knowledge within your organisation that you would expect to need for social housing retrofit projects?
For example:
- stock condition
- property data
- approach to procurement
- alignment with existing internal maintenance/upgrade plans
- tenant engagement and management plans
- costings
We have a level of expertise and knowledge however we acknowledge that this internal resource needs to expand to meet our ambitions (we have allocated resources to do this), we also acknowledge that external expertise will continue to be needed. We work closely with neighbouring authorities to share experiences and knowledge and identify opportunities for joint working where we can. We have an increasingly important relationship with the Greater South East Energy Hub to support this area of work.
We have access to asset data through condition surveys and EPC data for our own housing, we also have access to wider EPC data for housing across the city.
Have you experienced any challenges to retrofit, including during any previous government schemes you have taken part in.For example supply chain, funding, tenant cooperation, mixed tenure, split incentive, policy clarity? Please provide some detail. Have social housing partners reported any challenges to retrofit?
The most significant challenge with recent government schemes such as the Green Homes Grant and the Local Authority Delivery elements of this programme has been the short term nature of the funding and timescales for delivery, this has made it impossible for us to participate in and bid for funding in LAD1a or b. The certainty of ongoing funding and policy has been a challenge for a number of years for both residents and the supply chain, recent experiences of Green Deal and more lately Green Homes Grant undermine confidence for local authorities to resource and promote, residents to engage and the supply chain to invest.
How does your LA currently/how will your LA in future plan to go about identifying suitable housing stock and measures for retrofit? How do social housing partners identify suitable stock? By the same measures or via a different method?
For our own stock we will use locally and nationally available data including EPCs, stock condition surveys, IMD data to identify suitable households. We will also use opportunities presented by other capital investment programmes such as roof and window replacements to coordinate works and maximise benefits. This approach will be fundamental in our Asset Management strategy going forward.
What considerations would make you more or less likely to apply for government funding? If known, what is the opinion of your social housing partners?
The key elements for participation are; realistic time frames for applying for funding and delivering works, access to and support with datasets to identify suitable properties and households and compliant and accessible routes for delivering works.
To what extent are social housing tenants willing or unwilling to undergo retrofit, and what are the barriers and facilitators to their participation? If known, is this the same opinion across all social housing tenants or is it different with HA and ALMO tenants?
The main barriers are disruption caused by works, we see we have a key role to play in explaining the benefits of retrofit in carbon and potential bill saving. It is paramount that we engage with and work alongside residents and representative groups to identify and promote the benefits of retrofit.
Does the approach to retrofit change for leaseholders in mixed tenure blocks? What encourages them to co-operate?
Leaseholders require the same level of engagement in relation to the benefits of the work and also assurance about quality and value for money where they are making a financial contribution.