Net Zero Homes

As part of our ongoing analysis of the findings brought out in the Social Housing Barometer, we asked Rob Wall from the National Housing Federation to share his thoughts on the issue of climate change and decarbonisation rapidly moving up housing associations’ and boards’ agenda.

The past 12 months have been a hard reminder that nothing can be taken for granted. That nothing is certain. 

And this is as true for housing associations as it is for any other organisation or individual.

You only have to read the latest BDO Social Housing Barometer to understand the many challenges that the sector has faced in 2020: economic and market uncertainty, the operational challenges of responding to COVID-19 and supporting residents and communities through the pandemic, changes in government policy, building safety and Brexit. 

But the BDO Barometer also shows that the challenge of decarbonising homes and delivering on the government’s net zero ambition is an issue that is rapidly moving up boards’ agenda. And this is something that we see at the National Housing Federation (NHF). In fact, for many housing associations, this is now nearing the top of their board agendas.

Buildings are the second largest contributor of carbon emissions in the UK. And residential housing accounts for around one fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions. So if the government is to hit its target of making the UK net zero by 2050 then all housing associations will need to decarbonise their existing homes and start to build new homes to much higher environmental standards.

There are real benefits in making homes more energy efficient and in moving to low carbon forms of heating: this will cut fuel bills, help tackle fuel poverty, improve resident health and wellbeing, create new jobs, build greener communities and, of course, be good for the planet. 

And we know that housing associations share the government’s ambition for warmer, greener, cleaner homes. Many individual associations are already retrofitting existing homes to cut their carbon footprint and are piloting new technologies and approaches in new builds. But there remains significant challenges to overcome if the sector is to decarbonise by 2050. At the NHF, we estimate that we will need to decarbonise around 2.1m housing association homes across England to be on target for net zero by 2050.

In August 2020 we surveyed housing associations to understand where housing associations are on the journey to net zero and the challenges they face. The results have been published on the NHF website.

Given the scale of the ambition, it is not surprising that housing associations face a range of challenges when it comes to decarbonising homes: a lack of skills and capacity in supply chains, resident resistance, problems in procurement and planning, concerns around technology and competing business priorities. But the two key challenges we see are concerns around funding and a lack of policy certainty and direction.

Of all the housing associations we surveyed around three quarters said a lack of finance was the major barrier to retrofitting homes at scale and pace. Estimates vary widely, but some organisations have estimated that it will cost on average between £15-20,000 to make an existing home net zero.

And over half of housing associations highlighted the need for long term policy clarity and certainty from government to give them the confidence to make the right long term investment and operational decisions. 

To be fair, we have seen a raft of policy announcements from government in recent months to help the sector start to decarbonise. And, just this month, the government confirmed plans to introduce a new Future Homes Standard, that should see carbon emissions in new builds being cut by 75-80% from 2025. 

But we are still only at the start of the journey to net zero. We have a long way to go. 

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