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

05 November 2009 |

The Housing Forum's 2009/2010 series of Regional Conferences continued in Birmingham on 05th November 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 Exeter debate.

The Guest Chair was Chris Booker, Product Development Manager from Wolseley Sustainable Building Centre, together with a specialist panel drawn up from regional industry experts

• Pat Daly - Divisional Director; Tomlinson Housing, G F Tomlinson Birmingham Ltd
• Kate Symons - Head of Refurbishment and Regeneration, Building Research Establishment
• Carole Wildman - Director of Regeneration and Development, Walsall Housing Group

Chris Booker started the debate with some thoughts on the size of the task of Greening the Existing Stock. 80% of the homes that now exist are likely to be around in 2050 are already built. About half of our housing stock is over 50 years old, and 37% would fail the Decent Homes standard. In order to refurbish 7m homes by 2020, the rate would need to be 1 per minute. How do we incentivise owner occupiers? Pay As You Save (PAYS) looks good on paper, but will it work? When does the "stick" need to take over from the "carrot"? We need to optimise the supply chain so that solutions are available at the point of use including increasing awareness of products and technologies.

Carole Wildman discussed the problem of "greening the existing stock" from the point of view of a large local landlord. Walsall Housing Group house 20% of Walsall's population. They have reached the Decent Homes Standard for their properties and now need to look to the future. Making sure their homes are warm and affordable is their key priority around greening the existing stock. There is still a question over how the business can pay for green technology as the pay back will not cover the investment.

Pat Daly proposed a 30-40 year view in order to create a financial model that can pay for the improvements needed. For example it is worth spending 10% extra on better windows if this means they will last for 10-15 years longer. There is a need to educate the residents.

Kate Symons view was that PAYS may only be suitable for a certain portion of the market. It needs to be accessible to everyone. Many solutions are coming forward but are not suitable for all sectors of the market.

The conference then debated the following issues:

• Sustainability will always cost more, but we need to look at whole life value rather than point of sale price.
• RSLs need to establish a baseline of where they are. This stock intelligence will help to target limited funds to the right place. In theory this data should be available from their Decent Homes programmes. The view was expressed that Decent Homes missed its potential because it focused on component replacement rather than a holistic approach.
• Feed in tariffs could be a possible revenue stream. Landlords control a large area of roofs for solar panel, and could set up their own ESCOs. In the longer terms (over a 25 year period) CHP schemes can work.
• Sequential working - fabric first, renewable second is the way forward.
• The Tenant Services Authority may be focused on decency standards rather than environmental standards.
• Walsall Housing Group's major works programmes includes environmentally friendly retro-fit.
• The cost of finance for RSLs is not likely to come down in the near future, so where will the funding come from?
• Government needs to take the lead, and there needs to be a step change with a firm evidence base. This will only happen if embedded in regulations.
• Clear guidance is needed, measuring impact before and after retrofit.
• Major issues for the future with regard to upskilling the workforce.
• Because of the immaturity of technologies
  
  • It is therefore more sensible to concentrate on the fabric of the building first
    
  • A lot of technologies that work for new build are not suitable for retrofit
    
  • There is no one size fits all approach for renewables, e.g. you need south or south west facing windows for solar to work
    
  • We need to look to Europe where technologies are established. In Sweden and Germany have been operating for the last 30 years and we could learn from each other.
    
  • RSLs are worried about storing up maintenance issues for the future
    
• How do we engender a greater appetite amongst the end user?
  
  • Massive energy bills and rising general awareness (domestic fuel bills doubling in the last 3 years)
    
  • 2015-2021 predicted gaps in energy capacity before new power stations come on stream.
  • What is in it for RSLs? There will be no pay back because of rent regimes
    
  • NHF are campaigning over rent regimes. There is only so much money in the system. Need for subsidy. Tension between new build and retrofit agendas. Need more collaboration between the public and private sectors to look for solutions.
    
  • Institutional investors will not fund investment for RSLs but there is the possibility that they could take in public sector stock which would generate some capital.
• How have sales of new products risen? Is the cost falling? At what rate?
  • Volumes are rising quickly, but are still only a fraction of the total market - in the thousands rather than the millions. Solar thermal sales are under 50,000 pa and sales of ground source heat pumps are around 10,000 p.a.
    
  • There is no evidence of prices declining yet, apart from newer products. Some products are actually well established on the continent, so we can't expect them to fall massively in price.

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

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