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Porritt and Healey back 24housing's Retrofit Campaign and Award
24housing helps you get to grips with retrofit with our new
campaign and award for 2010, with a series of exclusive interviews,
news and expert advice.
To reach targets set by the Climate Change Act 2008, 26 MILLION
homes need to be refurbished to near zero carbon by 2050, and we
have the support of a whole houseful of serious players in the
retrofit arena, all keen to share their knowledge and opinion on
the retrofit challenge for social landlords.
This month, environmentalist Jonathon Porritt and Housing Minister
John Healey write exclusively for 24housing:
JONATHON PORRITT
Policy-makers in Whitehall sit there scratching their heads about
how best to notch up one of those elusive win-win-win success
stories: scoring a plus for the economy, a plus for people and
communities, and a plus for the environment.
The records since 1997 tell us that this Government is not very
good at it. For me, while I was still Chair of the Sustainable
Development Commission, it was unbelievably frustrating to see the
biggest single win-win-win opportunity overlooked year after year:
retrofitting our existing housing stock.
If you look at what they’ve been doing in Germany over the
last decade in terms of retrofitting their existing housing stock,
you’ll see what I mean. More than 250,000 new jobs, a
massive uplift in skills in the construction industry,
substantially reduced bills for tenants and home-owners, and
impressive reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases.
You might imagine we’d like a slice of that here in the UK,
especially if it enabled us to eliminate the scourge of fuel
poverty at the same time. But despite countless pledges from
ministers, the harsh reality is that there will be more people
living in fuel poverty in 2010 than there were in 1997. And for a
Labour Government, that’s one hell of an indictment.
It’s true that higher energy prices have not helped here, but
this still represents a massive policy failure, especially for the
5% of households that are estimated to spend more than 30% of their
combined income on energy. According to the most recent English
House Condition Survey in 2007, there are 7.7million
‘non-decent homes’ in England, representing around 35%
of the housing stock.
Housing associations and social landlords are now absolutely in the
frontline when it comes to responding to that challenge –
and, happily, there are already many inspiring examples of progress
being made on retrofitting and on new build.
But funding remains a massive problem. It is still very difficult
to put the right financing deals in place to take on more ambitious
retrofit schemes, especially as the real economies of scale only
kick in with schemes involving whole streets (or even whole
communities) rather than single dwellings.
And there’s one more variable that has to be factored in as
well as new skills and finance – and that’s human
behaviour. Stories abound of flats and houses brilliantly
retrofitted to reduce energy consumption only to be thwarted by
tenants jacking up the thermostat in the depths of winter so they
can carry on wearing their t-shirts! What’s more, the huge
increase in electrical and electronic appliances can often offset
the gains made in terms of more energy efficient heating and
lighting.
No easy challenge. But this campaign shows exactly what can
be done, and why it makes such good sense to get it done right
now.
Jonathon Porritt is Founder Director of Forum for the Future,
and author of Living Within Our Means and The Standing of
Sustainable Development in Government www.forumforthefuture.org
JOHN HEALEY
Homes account for a quarter of our carbon emissions so if we stand
a chance of tackling climate change we need nothing less than a
national crusade with everyone able to play their part. There is no
plan B and homes must become greener, that's why we must take
action on both our existing and new build housing stock.
With the first sites for eco-towns we are creating the world's
first zero carbon communities, and through Energy Performance
Certificates all prospective buyers and tenants are getting advice
on how to reduce lost energy and bills.
Most of the homes people will be living in in fifty years from now
have already been built, so it's essential we improve our existing
housing stock. The Government is acting to improve the standards of
social homes by spending £84million to insulate up to 110,000
homes.
This work is well underway and will help cut carbon emissions and
energy bills for thousands of people, often the most vulnerable in
society.
I'm pleased to see that 24housing is contributing to this
agenda.
John Healey, Housing Minister
24HOUSING RETROFIT BEST PRACTICE AWARD 2010
24housing is inviting you to enter your flagship retrofit projects
in our Retrofit Best Practice Award 2010. Now is your chance to
share your achievements with the rest of the sector, through
24housing magazine and online at www.24dash.com. The winner will receive
a specially-commissioned recycled trophy.
For more details visit:
http://www.24dash.com/news/Campaign/2010-01-04-24housing-Retrofit-Best-Practice-Award-2010-How-to-enter
Nigel Farren - http://www.homesmatter.co.uk
Commented 103 weeks ago
Jonathon says housing associations and social landlords are now absolutely in the frontline when it comes to responding to the retrofit challenge. I would suggest they are not so important as 82% of existing homes (21 million) are privately owned. The key is therefore to convince owner occupiers and private landlords to retroft and to date they have been offered inadequate carrots to do so.
In this context, there is a lot of talk about local councils leading delivery of domestic energy efficiency programmes. However, the reality is that most councils intend to focus on social housing not private housing and outsource delivery, marketing and home energy adviser (HEA) recruitment to third party agents. For most councils, it appears their only involvement will be product procurement and “lending” their name to marketing material.
If this is the case, then the success of energy efficiency programmes will largely depend not on the Councils themselves, but on the performance of their appointed delivery agents and the quality of staff they recruit.
In this context, there are only a small number of existing delivery agents. Some of these may not be able to perform satisfactorily if their resources become stretched as programmes roll out. They are not regulated, some are small, non – profit making organisations with limited financial resources and new ones are springing up to take advantage of opportunities that will arise through CESP, HESS and PAYS etc. Some councils have already appointed agents on a “permanent” basis without any performance targets / low uptake penalties or review dates built into their contracts.
As energy efficiency programmes roll out, there is therefore a danger that too much power will be in the hands of delivery agents and sucess will ultimately depend on the quality of the HEAs they recruit which at present is not good enough.
Convincing homeowners to take up energy savings measures in the private sector is a huge challenge. If delivery agent resources become stretched and they recruit low quality staff with poor sales and communication skills, low uptake will follow and complaints will increase resulting in resident’s trust in Councils being undermined and energy efficiency programmes, failing. See www.homesmatter.co.uk for details of how poorly trained HEAs are being recruited.
So, what is the solution? Every council must pay careful, ongoing attention to delivery agents’ capabilities. This includes assessing the quality of management, financials, recruitment policy and their ability to perform in the future. Councils should also only grant one year? contracts to delivery agents and build in financial penalties if low uptake of energy saving measures, arises.
Check out www.homesmatter.co.uk for further information related to this subject.