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URBED raise the green standard
URBED have produced a ground-breaking report and new low carbon housing standard that the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) believe could help slash energy bills and carbon emissions in the social housing sector, by retro-fitting green technology to thousands of homes.
Commissioned by a consortium of West Midlands based SHAP (the Sustainable Housing Action Partnership), the new ‘Beyond Decent Homes’ standard identifies the best improvement options for eight different house types, detailing their costs, carbon reduction and the wider benefits to tenant, landlord and the economy. It will shortly be presented to the Government as part of the consultation on a new Decent Homes standard.
In a bid to lead the way, the new standard sets out a path to achieve the Climate Change Act’s requirement for 80% cut in emissions by 2025, some 25 years earlier than the statutory 2050 target date. The SHAP partners - who include the award winning Accord Housing Group, Sandwell Homes and South Shropshire Housing Association - have committed to incorporate the standard into their asset management plans.
In a policy position statement endorsing URBED’s proposals, the HCA say they are “encouraged by the work and commitment of regional groups such as SHAP, and expect that this will make a valuable contribution to policy and strategy development.” The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) also provided a policy position statement, highlighting how the new standard will “make an essential contribution to deliver our national objectives, and to ensure social landlords are able to provide homes their tenants
can afford to heat and run.”
More than 100 housing experts from across the country gathered at the report’s recent launch at the ‘Retrofit 2050: Beyond Decent Homes Conference’ to explore how providers can meet the Government’s Carbon Emissions targets for 2050 by improving existing housing stock. Alan Yates, Chairman of SHAP and Director of Regeneration for the Accord Group, said: “Building new low carbon housing is crucial. However, we also need to find ways of making the existing housing stock across the country more sustainable; this is a major challenge not just to the region, but nationally. The SHAP partners will shortly be challenging the Government to give us what we need to make it happen.”
Report author Nick Dodd, URBED’s Principal Director for Sustainability, said the social housing sector should see itself at the vanguard of action on climate change: “Social housing can deliver retro-fit far more quickly, acting as an engine to inspire and build up knowledge capital for roll out to the wider housing stock. Social housing includes some of the best and worst properties - this is about equality of living standards and improving peoples lives.”
Charlie Baker, URBED’s Associate lead on retrofit technology added “This is not just a technical programme – retro-fit affects real lives and people’s homes, sometimes with considerable short-term disruption. This new standard considers both tenant and landlord, and how benefits like reduced energy costs and healthier homes might be captured and shared.”
URBED’s experience is being applied to a number of ‘Retro-fit for the Future’ bids for the Technology Strategy Board, and to ‘the URBED House’, a low carbon conversion of a Victorian semi in Manchester.
For more: Beyond Decent Homes Report
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