Wave 2 of Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund opened

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On 29th September, Wave 2.1 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (£800m) was launched by BEIS to support energy efficiency improvements in the social rented sector. Phase 2 of Home Upgrade Grants (£700m) was also launched, aiming to support low-income households off the gas grid. 

This funding comes at a critical time as we face a cost-of-living, energy, and climate crisis. We know that upgrading our homes by reducing the amount of energy they use and how they are heated is central to addressing these crises in the long-term. Warm, insulated homes heated with low carbon technologies have significantly fewer emissions, reduced energy bills, and lead to better health and wellbeing outcomes.  

On the launch of the funding, the NHC’s Tracy Harrison said:  

“We welcome the opening of this important funding, which gives the North the opportunity to scale-up social housing retrofit programmes, creating good, skilled, green jobs and helping to tackle fuel poverty in our communities. 

The North is ambitious for this Wave – some significant collaborations are under way and councils and housing associations are looking forward to working with BEIS to build on the momentum we’ve already established together.” 

The Conservative Party manifesto committed to delivering a £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) over a ten-year period to upgrade the energy performance of social rented homes below EPC C. The aims of the Fund are to “deliver warm, energy-efficient homes, reduce carbon emissions and fuel bills, tackle fuel poverty, and support green jobs”. 

 An SHDF Demonstrator was launched in August 2021 with an initial investment of £62m from the overall fund. The NHC’s analysis showed that successful bids in the North represented only 14% of the funding allocated in England through the Demonstrator round: Sunderland City Council, Manchester City Council, and Leeds City Council were the successful Northern local authorities. 

Wave 1 of SHDF funding totalled nearly £179m granted to 69 lead local authorities across England. Our analysis of the allocation shows that 19 of these 69 local authorities are in the North with funding totalling around £63m coming to the region. This represents 35% of total funding allocated through Wave 1 which is a significant improvement on the 14% the North received through the Demonstrator round. 

Wave 2.1 will see up to £800m of grant funding allocated. We hope our ambitious members in the North will engage fully with the Fund to continue to create and regenerate sustainable homes, and build resilient, thriving communities in the region. 

NHC members discussed this new round of funding at a roundtable with Selvin Brown, Director of Net Zero Buildings at BEIS, this month. Selvin will be addressing the NHC’s flagship event, the Northern Housing Summit, in Manchester on 9th November – make sure your place is secured here. 

See SHDF Wave 2.1 guidance here and HUG Phase 2 guidance here. 

 

Introducing the Home Upgrade Grant Phase 2 (HUG 2)

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The Home Upgrade Grant Phase 2 (HUG 2) is a £700m grant funding scheme that has been set up by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to help Local Authorities (LAs) provide energy efficiency upgrades and clean heating systems to low-income households. The scheme targets the worst performing (EPC band D-G), off-gas grid homes in England.

A key focus of the scheme is to phase out the use of fossil fuel heating and make progress towards the UK’s 2050 Net Zero commitment. It will also support improved household health and wellbeing by reducing the number of cold homes and play a key role in the government’s wider programme of green retrofit.  Additional guidance for HUG 2 is available at gov.uk.

What support is available?

The Home Upgrade Hub is a support service that provides a range of resources developed by housing retrofit and grant application experts to help LAs in England apply to HUG 2.

This technical support is being made available to LAs at key stages during the development of their applications. The Home Upgrade Hub website will continue to be populated with various resources and materials to provide relevant support to LAs. A series of webinars, masterclasses and podcasts have already gone live and more will be uploaded over the coming months.

What should I do next?

The first step for any LA interested in applying is to submit a self-assessment form. This is a quick tool to help LAs understand how prepared they are to engage in the HUG 2 application process, as well as help gain access to the free one-to one support offered from the Home Upgrade Hub. You can submit your form here.

To receive the latest news, top tips and invitations to events straight to your inbox, sign up to the Home Upgrade Hub newsletter for free here.

If you have any questions, please email info@homeupgradehub.org.uk

Making Every Contact Count (MECC)

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Making Every Contact Count (MECC) is an approach to behaviour change that utilises the day to day interactions that people, organisations and communities have with others to encourage positive choices to improve our overall health. Many long-term diseases are closely linked to known behavioural risk factors that are attributable to tobacco, alcohol, being overweight or physical inactive that can ultimately lead to poor mental health.

MECC is a whole person approach considering an individual’s circumstances such as their finances, employment status, social support and housing. The smallest of changes can make the biggest difference when it comes to positive physical and mental wellbeing. MECC can take a matter of minutes, help people respond to opportunities to discuss health and relay brief messages.

It follows a simple process revolving around the 3A model including:

  • Ask – taking notice of others, listening and engaging during opportunistic chats
  • Assist – providing useful and motivational health information
  • Act – signposting to local support services

Across the country there are opportunities for organisations to get involved with MECC and more specifically in the North the following contacts can support you to implement MECC. If you are interested in MECC please visit each regional signposting website or contact the MECC lead for that region to support your next steps:

North East and North Cumbria

There will be some slight differences across the country, but for those within the North East and North Cumbria there is a free Train the Trainer model that exists that organisations can access to upskill their staff to deliver the Core MECC training in house providing their frontline staff with the knowledge, confidence and skills to support tenants, colleagues and other services with wider health issues.

“I was apprehensive before the training, but I feel I know more now as it links into other areas with my work. The link to people’s everyday life is brilliant!”

“The message is so consistent, and that even though the interventions are brief, they are meaningful”

“It was very thought provoking as it made me think about how often I actually have MECC conversations with tenants, colleagues, friends, family and even my neighbours”

MECC Gateway website: www.meccgateway.co.uk/nenc

Contact: craig.robson@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.uk

Lancashire and South Cumbria

MECC Link website: www.mecclink.co.uk/lancashire-and-south-cumbria/

Contact: athompson-spears@activelancashire.org.uk

Yorkshire and Humber

MECC Link website: www.mecclink.co.uk/yorkshire-humber/

Contact: Chris.Sharp@dhsc.gov.uk

Cheshire and Merseyside

MECC Link website: https://mecc-moments.co.uk/

Contact: stephenpeters@wirral.gov.uk

NHC Unlocking Success Bursary Scheme awards 15 tenants

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The Unlocking Success Bursary Scheme, funded through the Northern Housing Consortium Charitable Trust, awards bursaries of £500 to help tenants develop learning and skills to support future employment. Since its launch in 2019, the scheme has awarded 73 bursaries to 43 member organisations. To hear some of the success stories from past successful applications, see here. The 2022 edition of the scheme launched in April with the application deadline in July, and we received 24 strong applications for this round. From these submissions, a further 15 tenants, from 6 of our members, have been awarded the bursary after successful applications.

We received a range of great applications, with various support requests to help tenants with future employment by increasing their access to learning and skills development. Below are some examples of the support the bursary fund will provide to successful tenants.

Dean is a tenant from Gateshead Council and will be using the bursary to support his travel costs to University and placements while he completes a course in PGCE Secondary Computer Science, to help work with children with special educational needs. Another tenant from Gateshead Council, Holly, will use to the bursary to pay for books, stationary and travel costs as she embarks on an A-Level Law course at Gateshead College.

Katy, a tenant from Livin, will be using the money to fund a NCFE CACHE Diploma/Certificate Level 3 in Supporting Teaching and Learning. Katy wants to get this qualification in order to become a teaching assistant, something she wants to do after being made redundant. Other successful applicants with Livin include Deanne, who wanted the money to fund the purchase of a laptop which will in turn help her with online training to gain her Maths GCSE and start an IT course. This will hopefully allow her to get a part-time job as she is a single parent bringing up three children of school age. Karl will use the money to buy his own tools so he can become self-employed within the welding industry, as companies he has worked for in the past cannot guarantee full time work.

Daniel, another Livin tenant, said “the grant will help me as I have always had an interest in photography and I have never had the confidence to pursue my dreams until now with the support of Livin. I would complete a course through Bishop Auckland College and purchase a camera for this course”.

Habinteg tenant Francesca intends to use funds received from the bursary to pay toward costs related to her degree including books, stationery, travel and course fees. As a dedicated student nurse, she is unable to work in the holidays to subsidise herself as she will be on unpaid placements doing twelve hour shifts.

Ella, an Eden Housing Association tenant, applied for the bursary to part-fund the next part of their counselling course which they have already saved some of the fees for. Ella detailed why the fund is so important, having found herself unable to return to her previous career due to ill-health, “I struggled with grieving for my former life and accepting my new circumstances. Counselling was a transformative process for me in helping me to overcome these difficulties and I am now passionate about wanting to help others who have found themselves in similar situations. I desperately wish to return to work but it is incredibly difficult for me to find a workplace which offers me the flexibility that I need due to my health. A career in counselling permits me to control my own workload and to work in a way which fits my needs, whilst also allowing me to fulfil my dream of supporting others… It would not only transform my life but also allow me to have a similar impact on others through my work.”

Finally, South Lakes Housing tenant Jennifer explained, “I wish to do a course in British sign language as at present there is no one with this qualification in my workplace. I pride myself in making sure that education is accessible to everyone and commination is vital for this to happen, not only with the children but also any parents of carers as well. In addition I would like to take minibus lessons in order to be able to drive a minibus. My work place is very small and our trips can cost quite a lot per child as the transport is the biggest cost factor. If I had my minibus licence, then we would be able to cut down the cost of education trips and offer more trips at a lower cost.”

Congratulations to this year’s 15 successful applicants! Look out for updates on the next round of the bursary in 2023, further information on the scheme is available on our website.

NHC will be hosting a celebratory and fundraising lunch on Friday 2nd December at Ramside Hall where we will be recognising this year’s successful applicants and looking forward to supporting future tenant applicants.  Please contact Lynda.Redshaw@northern-consortium.org.uk for further information or to book a table. Alternatively you could donate directly via our JustGiving site to support a future tenant.

 

Common Purpose – leadership development

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Common Purpose is a global leadership organisation devoted to developing leaders who can cross boundaries, both at work and in society. A not-for-profit organisation founded in the North of England over years ago, we deliver face-to-face and online leadership programmes for multiple generations of leaders: from young leaders to senior leaders in organisations and society, in over 200 cities across the world.

Our programmes equip leaders at all levels to be more inclusive and to create impact beyond their leadership mandate – we focus leadership of not just team, but system and place. We run a range of open programmes and organisational solutions.

Our USP is our convening power – whether that be the diverse groups on our open programmes or the range of external speakers we use to present diverse perspectives on the big leadership challenges facing organisations and places.

 Recent examples of our work include:

Blended open programmes for emerging and senior leaders from across a diverse range of organisations in the North – running over 2-3 months and bringing together circa 50 leaders in each group with over 60 external contributors in spring this year

  • Organisational solutions for teams or whole organisations – helping to develop leadership capabilities or nudge culture change. Our recent programme for emerging leaders from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in Newcastle University won the CIPD regional diversity award.

We are proud to work with a number of NHC members across the North already including: Southway Homes, Gentoo Group, Leeds City Council, Blackpool Coastal Housing and Jigsaw Homes.

For more information on our range of programmes please visit our website www.commonpurpose.org

 

What’s coming up?

We’ll be starting our open programmes for both senior and emerging leaders in the next few weeks. There is still time to apply. For more information please see The Common Purpose Programme

  • We are bringing our next FREE leadership programme for younger leaders (aged 18-25) to Leeds in November. For more information please see our Leeds150 Legacy Programme

If you’d like to talk to someone in the team please email claire.bennett@commonpurpose.org

A new direction? – A look at who Liz Truss has appointed to her Cabinet

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With a new prime minister generally brings a new Cabinet and Liz Truss has decided on an extensive reshuffle as her government attempts to move away from the past leadership of Boris Johnson.

Truss has appointed former BEIS secretary Kwasi Kwarteng as the new Chancellor – Kwarteng delivered his mini-budget last week alongside the publication of ‘The Growth Plan 2022’. Read NHC’s on-the-day update summarising the details of the new Chancellor’s measures to tackle inflation, the cost of living and to stimulate growth.

Former Attorney General Suella Braverman has been appointed Home Secretary and Liz Truss has chosen James Cleverley to replace her as Foreign Secretary. Thérèse Coffey will undertake a new Cabinet role as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, as well as being appointed Deputy Prime Minister.

Simon Clarke, MP for Middlesborough South & East Cleveland, and former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is the new Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The Tees Valley MP wrote in The Express last week advocating for the new ‘Investment Zones’ announced in the Growth Plan – saying, “these new low tax, low regulation zones will not only deliver on the promises of Brexit, but on the defining mission of this Government: to grow our economy and level up the country”. Clarke is also a former Vice Chair of the APPG for Housing in the North of which the NHC acts as Secretariat.

Clarke has appointed Lee Rowley as housing minister – the MP for North Derbyshire replaces Marcus Jones who was in the role for 62 days and becomes the third housing minister in a year. Clarke has also appointed Dehenna Davison, MP for Bishop Auckland, as a junior minister for levelling up. Davison will be tasked with progressing the levelling up agenda – often seen as Boris Johnson’s flagship policy, and will be responsible for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund as well as the Levelling Up Fund. MP for Pendle Andrew Stephenson has also been appointed as a junior minister and Paul Scully MP has been re-appointed as a Minister of State (Minister for London).

Jacob Rees-Mogg is the new Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Rees-Mogg will be tasked with addressing the energy price crisis and alleviating the UK’s reliance on imports of foreign energy. Earlier in September, Liz Truss announced details of the ‘Energy Price Guarantee’ –  the package of support to help with the rising cost of energy bills. From 1st October, a new Energy Price Guarantee will replace the price cap and will mean a typical UK household will now pay an average of £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years.

Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, has been appointed Minister of State for Climate. Jackie Doyle-Price and Nusrat Ghani have both been newly appointed as Ministers of State at BEIS and Lord Callanan has been reappointed as a junior minister.

Ben Wallace is one of the few MP’s to retain their role in Cabinet, continuing as Defence Secretary and leading the response to the war in Ukraine. Nadhim Zahawi, who replaced Rishi Sunak as Chancellor of the Exchequer for two months, will now be responsible for running the Cabinet Office as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Annie-Marie Trevelyan has been appointed Transport Secretary and Kit Malthouse will become Education Secretary.

Despite the far-reaching changes to the government under its new leadership, the NHC will continue to engage with the relevant stakeholders to ensure that the North is represented and we can continue to influence housing policy decisions in Westminster.

See the full list of ministerial appointments across government here.

If you wish to follow up on any of this with the NHC you can do so by contacting Josef Bews at josef.bews@northern-consortium.org.uk.

Government mandates smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in rented homes

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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) recently outlined new guidance for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in rented homes which is due to come into force on 1st October 2022.

Housing Minister Eddie Hughes MP has written to sector representatives with an update on new smoke and carbon monoxide alarm requirements (full letter below).

The new regulations have now been laid before parliament and if agreed, will take effect on 1 October 2022. The main effect of the new regulations is to amend the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Regulations 2015 (2015/1693). This will remove the exemption of social landlords, so that from October housing associations and local authority landlords will be subject to the 2015 regulations.

The regulations require that:

  • Registered providers of social housing must ensure at least one smoke alarm is provided on each storey of their homes where there is a room used as living accommodation. This has been a legal requirement in the private rented sector since 2015.
  • All landlords must ensure a carbon monoxide alarm is provided in any room used as living accommodation which contains a fixed combustion appliance (excluding gas cookers).
  • All landlords will be legally obligated to ensure smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms are repaired or replaced once they are informed and the alarms are found to be faulty.

In cases where repair or replacement of an alarm is necessary, the obligation on landlords is to act ‘as soon as reasonably practical’ after being advised of the problem.

All landlords have time between when the amendment regulations became law on 27 June 2022 and when they come into force on 1 October 2022 when they must comply with the new requirements.   Further information and updates can be found on the DLUHC website.

As an NHC member, you can access smoke and carbon monoxide alarms through Consortium Procurement’s comprehensive TECS framework, which has typically saved members up to 13.4% compared to direct to supplier purchases.

Don’t hesitate to contact their Business Development team if you’re thinking about using a solution to facilitate compliance. They will be happy to discuss options with you. Email: solutions@consortiumprocurement.org.uk today.

Construction networks 

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We are revamping our offer to members in this area to ensure it remains relevant and of value. 

We currently host the following:

  • Building Safety Network 
  • Annual Health & Building Safety Conference 
  • Disrepair Network 
  • Repairs and Maintenance Network 
  • Annual Asset Management Conference 

Our plan is to replace the Repairs and Maintenance network with a new Asset Management Network, which will incorporate some of the issues in day-to-day Repairs and Maintenance, void repairs issues, stock condition and capital repairs and improvements (including decarbonisation, Decent Homes, Net Zero etc.). The Asset Management Network will also inform the agenda and topics for the annual Asset Management Conference. 

We will retain the existing Building Safety Network and the annual Health and Building Safety event alongside the Disrepair Network as separate entities. 

The first meeting of the Asset Management network is planned for 19 September. Please register your attendance here.

(You will need to register for MyNHC if you haven’t previously. You can register at www.mynhc.org.uk) 

If you have any queries about the network, please contact our Head of Business Improvement, Nigel Johnston (nigel.johnston@northern-consortium.org.uk) 

If you are interested in joining any of our other networks please email events@northern-consortium.org.uk

 

Reducing the flow temperature on your boiler can save up to 8% on your energy bill and cut carbon emissions from your home

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In the corporate plan we are committed to three cross-cutting themes – sustainability, wellbeing and equality, diversity and inclusion – which run through everything we do.

The aims of the sustainability group are to minimise our own environmental impact across the organisation and embed sustainability as a core principle. Act on sustainability in its widest sense, both internally in the way we work as an organisation and externally by supporting members to meet the net-zero challenge and create thriving, low carbon communities.

With energy costs soaring, a quick and simple way to reduce the amount of gas your condensing combi boiler uses, and therefore the amount you pay this winter, is to make an easy change to the flow temperature on your boiler.  

Often flow temperatures are set unnecessarily high meaning households use more gas than they need to. Making these changes will help your boiler run more efficiently without lowering the temperature of your home. 

Source: https://www.theheatinghub.co.uk/

Find out everything you need to know about how to increase the efficiency of your condensing combi boiler and reduce your energy bill here. 

Keynote chapter – the North’s Private Rented Sector

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New report reveals the need for urgent reform across private rented home sector. 

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are facing calls to accelerate reforms to protect tenants following a new report that reveals residents of private rented homes across the North of England face low standards, rising rents and a chronic lack of stability.

The Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) publishes the Northern Housing Monitor 2022 report to provide an up-to-date picture of housing standards across the north. It shows that for the 1.2 million (or 17.4%) northern private renter households almost a third (30%) of properties were of a ‘non-decent’ standard, with improvement over the last ten years solely due to an above England average 47% improvement in the North West housing stock.

Housing quality in both the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber has worsened over the decade, with volumes of non-decent accommodation increasing by 3.6% and 1.3%, respectively, up to 2020.

A total of 4.4 million households makes up England’s private rented sector, including 1.3 million households with children and 382,000 households over 65. The policy paper ‘A Fairer Private Rented Sector’ published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in June concluded that “this is driving unacceptable outcomes and holding back some of the most deprived parts of the country.”

DLUHC has identified that over half (54%) of households spend more than 30% of their income on housing, including renter groups categorised as ‘families getting by’ and ‘low-income savers’.

Nationally, nine of the top ten neighbourhoods (and 43 of the top 100) with the highest concentrations of private renting in England in 2011 were in northern cities, indicating that northern renting tends to be more concentrated than in other parts of England.

The NHC report identifies that renters in Yorkshire and the Humber live in the lowest quality housing of any region in England, with Yorkshire relying more on the private rented sector than any region outside London.

Yorkshire’s private rented sector has the lowest standards in England, with rates of non-decency (37.6%) well above the English average of 22.8% and those in other Northern regions – the North East (28.2%) and the North West (23.9%).

The NHC is calling on the incoming Prime Minister to ensure that the Government delivers the Renters Reform Agenda and its Levelling Up Mission on housing quality. The Levelling Up White Paper published in February set out a ‘mission’ to halve the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030, a target confirmed in June’s Fairer Private Rented Sector White Paper.

The NHC represents 140 councils and housing associations across the North; its chief executive, Tracy Harrison, said:

“The Yorkshire and Humber region has the lowest standards of private rented accommodation of any region. It’s clear that for significant parts of the North the standards are already poor and getting worse.

“It is imperative that the new Prime Minister accelerates the Renters Reform Agenda and doesn’t let the standard of private rented housing in the North slide. Otherwise, the Government will fall way short of hitting its target of halving the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030. The need to level-up housing quality is vital, particularly across the North, where homes are older, suffer from a lack of investment, and the sector is crying out for support and proper regulation.

“While most people have a positive experience living in the private rented sector, the fact is that many residents are often vulnerable, with specific health and social care needs. The quality of the housing in the lower end of the sector is simply not up to standard and can exacerbate physical and mental health conditions to limit life chances further.

“The Government must deliver on the promises that have been made to Northern renters, and momentum must be maintained. Councils, landlords and renters all want to see a plan to boost quality in the North’s private rented sector.”

The private rented housing sector grew 36% between 2010 and 2020 and now houses 17% of Northerners. Given the expansion in the North of England, it is evident that the new stock that has come into the market has often been non-decent.

In addition to calling on the Government to push on with its plans to boost housing quality as part of the levelling-up agenda, with 54% of those in the private rented sector at high risk of fuel poverty, the NHC has outlined the need to increase the pace of energy efficiency upgrades to homes urgently.

The ongoing cost of living crisis will increase bills for those living in poorly insulated, energy inefficient rented properties. The latest predictions estimate the energy price cap will increase by 77% on October 1 to £3,500, and in January next year, it will rise even further.

The private rented sector keynote chapter is a taster of 2022’s comprehensive state-of-the region Northern Housing Monitor: the analysis you need, in one place. The full 2022 Monitor will be published in the Autumn – in the meantime, you can find 2021’s Monitor here.  The NHC is grateful to Gentoo and Yorkshire Housing for their support for 2022’s Northern Housing Monitor.  The Monitor is commissioned from Arc4 by the NHC.