Housing associations plan city’s Green Deal roll out

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government

Housing associations and local authorities in Liverpool are looking to work together to roll out a major energy efficiency programme across the city region.

Yesterday, landlords and councils across the city attended a summit to examine how they could best deliver a low-carbon vision for the city, taking advantage of the Government’s Green Deal, which kicks off later this year.

A consortium made up of 10 of the city's housing associations and four councils, named 'Project Viridis', came together last year to take advantage of the Government’s Feed-in Tariff scheme.

However, it’s now looking to refocus its proposition to ensure it’s best placed to take advantage of the Government’s Green Deal and support communities hit by rising energy costs.

Steve Coffey, chief executive of Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH) – one of the landlords involved – said: “We need to be scalable and big enough to get a seat at the table and speak to decision makers and get investment across the whole of the city region."

A number of councils have developed Green Deal models, which involve their housing associations partners, including Birmingham and Newcastle city councils and the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA).

Housing associations looking to become Green Deal providers include the likes of Gentoo, Affinity Sutton, Places for People, Alliance Homes and the Aster Group.

The models on the table so far for councils and housing associations include working in partnership with a commercial company to market the Green Deal to customers, or becoming a Green Deal provider, either carrying out the work themelves or procuring a commercial partner.

Key to its success will be securing low-cost finance - which will underpin the Golden Rule and determine whether schemes are viable. That's why there has been significant interest in the Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC), which will look to raise capital on the bond markets for both housing associations and councils to access.

Also attending yesterday's summit was Luciana Berger MP who questioned what the Government was doing to ensure providers were going to get interest rates attractive enough to drive demand.

In response, Steve Ives, policy adviser at the Department for Energy and Climate Change, said: "In terms of the interest rate, we're not going to tell the market how to do that. It's really about the commercial offer. In the GDFC's press statements they were talking about interest rates of 5% to 6% and that they wanted to drive that down through getting more local authorities on board." 

Knowsley Housing Trust (KHT) - also part of Project Viridis - managed to install 49 PV systems within a four-week period through the first phase of the programme.

Ian Thomson, Executive Director of Asset Management at KHT, said of the second phase of Viridis: “I want to see a model that creates jobs and training opportunities for residents at a local and regional level. That’s why we’re keen to carry on this journey.”

The Government is set to publish its consultation responses to its Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation plans by June 11.