The Housing Forum East Midlands Regional Conference Topical Debate - Greening the Existing Stock

28 May 2009 |

The launch of The Housing Forum's 2009/2010 series of Regional Conferences took place in Derby on 21st May 2009. Our regular engagement with the housing industry involves monthly regional conferences across the English regions which take the temperature of member concerns. Greening the existing stock and priorities for attention was the focus of the Derby debate.

The Guest Chair was Matthew Whittaker, Service Manager at Nottingham City Homes, together with a specialist panel was drawn up from regional industry experts:

Background

The session began with a short presentation by Colm Quinn, Project and Policy Officer at the Housing Forum. Colm reminded us of the government's 1990 targets to cut CO2 emissions by 60% before 2050. The government has set a target of achieving Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes in new build houses by 2016. These targets were set before the current economic downturn but have not been revised accordingly.

It has long been our concern that there should be more emphasis on the existing stock. The Housing Forum Working Group on "Sustainable Refurbishment of the Existing Stock" recommended developing a Code for Sustainable Refurbishment in 2008.

The panel gave their views from different industry perspectives.

Guest Chair, Matthew Whittaker, firstly commented on concern that the Decent Homes Programme had not included sustainability improvements. To bring these homes into sustainability standards would be costly and disruptive and leave insulation as the only real "mass" option.

Nottingham City Homes aim to exceed the basic standards whilst undergoing their decent homes programme there is the opportunity to spend up to £8000 on average per property. This will inevitably reduce fuel poverty and will be looking at options to reduce heating and hot water costs.

Matthew’s biggest concerns for the social housing sector are:

  • Tapping into various funding streams - the range ad scale
  • The differing needs of properties, not a ‘one size fits all’ approach
  • The disruption to tenants
  • Customer awareness

Brian Stannett (Polypipe) believed that there is a role for manufacturers to bring about change. Manufacturers produce the products which result in systems and therefore solutions. They have historically manufactured for new build homes but have recently started to look more closely at greening the existing stock. The market opportunity for the existing stock is huge with 23m existing homes in private and public ownership in need of retro-fitting and this represents a massive opening for manufacturers to become involved.

Mike Turner (Ian Williams Ltd.) proposed the contractors view that sustainability is a much more complex issue than simply installing energy saving light bulbs or remembering to recycle. He pointed out that sustainability needs to add value or it is unlikely to be taken up en masse. There is a need for continuous innovation but this will depend on a good business case and the prospect of wide scale adoption of such technologies. The amount of investment by social landlords on Greening the Existing Stock is not reflected in any rent increases so there needs to be another way of bridging the funding gap or recouping the costs. Integrating the supply chain and long term relationships are crucial for continuous improvement and cost effective solutions. Measurement of achieved targets linked to sustainability will help benchmarking and assessment of the value we get from sustainable measures.

Kate Mansfield (PRP) gave the designer point of view and was concerned with minimizing the disruption whilst improving the existing stock. Improving the building fabric whilst preserving historic buildings is a challenge. In some instances, we will be met with the decision to demolish or refurbish and whilst refurbishment is the more sustainable solution, it is the most costly by far.

Kate raised the issue of post occupancy monitoring. The benefits of sustainability to the tenant are a major driver so monitoring energy usage and receiving feedback from tenants is important.

The conference then debated these topics:

Finance

  • Could a driver for the private sector be to add energy efficiency information to HIP packs?
  • There is grant funding available to the 3 million homes under private landlords to improve energy efficiency, however, this does not cover private home owners.
  • Need to demonstrate the cost savings to tenants in order to justify increased rents, although tenants on benefits will not be picking up the bill.

Targets

  • Carbon emission targets can only be achieved by greening our existing housing stock. These were debated as unachievable as the estimated cost would be around £7bn per year at a time when there is pressure on public spending.
  • The Housing Forum Code for Sustainable Refurbishment should be used to set targets for the existing stock. There should be a similar standard set for private home owners and a certain level should be met before a house is put up for sale.

Change of Mindset

  • The thought of regular council recycling collection would have been unimaginable a few years ago. Most of us are now able to make a difference without it becoming a major chore. In the future our mindset will change and we will actively try to go the extra mile in sustainability, of both new build and the existing stock.

The Housing Forum is grateful to the panel for their time and knowledge on this subject.

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