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BACKGROUND

Decarbonisation is a significant delivery target for believe housing, which manages around 19,000 homes across County Durham and beyond. Believe received funding from Waves 1 and 2.1 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF).

A programme of energy efficiency works will make sure all its homes are rated Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C or above by 2030, with those most in need upgraded first.

This work will help create healthy homes, support customers, reduce housing’s impact on climate change, and support the regional and green economies.

All of this would be supported if further grant funding is available and a local workforce with the right skills is available to deliver.

ACTION

Using the funding light-touch measures were delivered at scale. More than 1,100 homes received measures including loft and cavity wall insulation to prevent heat loss through walls and the roof, internal door vents to achieve cross flow ventilation, heating controls, and energy efficient lighting.

Other action by believe housing included fitting oversized radiators during a central heating upgrade so a clean heat solution can be installed at the next lifecycle, without needing a whole system replacement. Also, maximum depth loft top-ups were undertaken during retrofit and re-roofing works.

RUTH DENT, DIRECTOR OF ASSETS AND COMPLIANCE AT BELIEVE HOUSING, SAID:

“Some great collaborative work went into both successful bids, which is enabling us to make homes warmer and healthier for customers, save them money on their energy bills, and reduce our properties’ carbon footprint.”

IMPACT

There was 97% resident satisfaction across the scheme, which was delivered by 100% local labour. Together, the measures will benefit residents by making their homes warmer, greener, cheaper and healthier. For example, cavity wall insulation saves 25% to 33% heat loss through walls and a quarter of heat is lost through the roof in an uninsulated home. Keeping heat in means tenants may be able to reduce energy consumption and their bills can be less than they would otherwise be.

Every 100W incandescent bulb replaced by an LED bulb could save up to £13 per bulb per year, according to the Energy Saving Trust.

Also, improved ventilation ensures air can move around a property to avoid build-up of stale air in any room, to reduce condensation and mould risks.

LESSONS LEARNT

Streamline surveys and checks to reduce disruption. Despite a focus on low-disruption measures, the requirements of PAS:2035 meant a lot of different surveys and checks were needed. Streamlining these as much as possible, for example by carrying out a post-works EPC at the same time as handover of works, helped to cut down on disruption to residents, improved access rates, and sped up the processing of paperwork.

Use information gained from initial surveys to improve targeting in future projects. Initial surveys determine early on if work is needed. Homes that can’t progress under the funded scheme are dropped as early as possible. Information from those surveys is fed back into the list of targeted addresses, so properties of a similar archetype can be given a lower priority for a survey. This ensures best value and use of resources. Over time, there should be a higher rate of success with the addresses targeted. Even where works don’t proceed, valuable property data has been obtained.

Prepare for a lot of administration and take a collaborative approach. Administration for the scheme was a greater burden than expected. Streamlining the process with a minimum number of live progress trackers shared between sub-contractors, principal contractor, and housing association eased this. A collaborative approach to paperwork ensured reporting and information to be held on asset databases is accurate and increased the wider team’s knowledge of processes such as EPC surveys.

Customer facing coordinators will help improve access. Despite the cost-of-living crisis, some residents did not engage or want the works. Providing the contractor’s customer experience co-ordinators with a believe housing phone number helped improve access, as did the contractors’ flexible approach to delivery.

FUTURE PLANS

For SHDF Wave 2.1, believe housing joined the North East and Yorkshire bid, led by the North East & Yorkshire Net Zero Hub and supported by Tees Valley Combined Authority. The £32.4 million grant from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and £48.2 million from consortium partners will deliver £80.6m of upgrades to 5,525 homes.

For believe housing, that will mean a £13.7m scheme to improve the energy efficiency of at least 2,000 further homes. As before, the scheme of works will focus on homes with an EPC rating below C, which will most benefit from the work. About half of these homes will get low level measures, similar to those completed in Wave 1. Others will get more extensive measures such as external wall insulation, floor insulation, or solar panels to generate clean electricity.