Housing

HOW CAN SOCIAL HOUSING PROVIDERS USE MAINTENANCE AND UPGRADE PROGRAMMES TO TACKLE FUEL POVERTY?

James Brett, Managing Director of construction and property maintenance company Edgeley Construction, discusses the importance of EPC upgrades in tackling fuel poverty for social housing tenants.

It’s been a busy few months for news. While international headlines have been full of the horrors of the war in Ukraine, closer to home, the impact of the cost of living crisis has been equally distressing for many. Rising energy prices, escalating food bills and the cost of fuel are at the eye of a perfect storm, with increased National Insurance and VAT rates and an end to the Universal Credit uplift putting pressure on household budgets from all sides.

The social housing sector is at the frontline of this crisis. Many social housing tenants are on low incomes and may have already been living with fuel poverty before the current jump in prices. Now, with increasing numbers of tenants facing the difficult choice between heating and eating, urgent and drastic action is needed to help reduce the impact of galloping costs.

Against this backdrop, social housing providers are also under pressure to consider costs of another kind: the price paid by the environment when housing is energy inefficient. The Government has set ambitious targets for the UK to become net-zero carbon by 2050 – an ambition that is achievable only if substantial improvements are made to both social and private housing stock. Carbon emissions from residential properties account for around 20% of the UK’s emissions total, and reducing the environmental impact of homes requires a combination of measures, including investment in renewables and driving down consumption.

The EPC upgrade initiative

The Government’s EPC (energy performance certificate) upgrade programme for the social housing sector has the potential to make a significant difference to both the financial and environmental costs of poorly-insulated housing stock. The initiative has seen a pledge for £179m of funding to improve the energy efficiency of 20,000 social housing homes, providing resilience against additional anticipated energy price rises in the autumn, while updating housing stock to extend its service life and contribute to the battle against climate change.

Many of the properties involved in the EPC upgrades programme are homes constructed with solid walls, which makes them unsuitable for external or cavity wall insulation improvements. Where this is the case, internal wall insulation (IWI) is an excellent alternative that will help to keep homes warmer so that less energy is required to keep tenants comfortable, helping them to turn down their thermostats or switch off their heating, which, in turn, will enable them to save energy and reduce their bills or top up their prepayment meters less often.

Meanwhile, upgrades to heating systems are also key to reducing consumption. Where possible, renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels or air source heat pumps, can be installed to reduce tenants’ reliance

on the grid and, as a result, bring down their bills. But even where renewables are cost prohibitive or impractical, conventional technologies can be used to reduce both consumption and bills. For example, for the properties Edgeley Construction will be working on, storage heaters are being installed that will use cheap electricity during the night to keep the homes warm all day. Meanwhile, new ventilation systems will improve air quality and reduce the risk of condensation, enhancing the living environment and extending the service life of the property and interior finishes.

A considerate approach to carrying out EPC upgrades

Edgeley Construction is one of many construction and maintenance companies working with the social housing sector to deliver EPC upgrades.

A project to upgrade 1700 homes over the next two years will draw on the expertise of Edgeley maintenance teams trained in the specialist skills required to carry out the scope of work, and experienced in delivering refurbishment projects in occupied residential properties. This is a critical factor in the rollout of the EPC upgrades programme, because the benefits to tenants need to be balanced with the disruption of having substantial work carried out in their home while they are still living there. There is an urgency to the upgrades, not only because energy prices are set to rise again just as we all start to reach for the thermostat in the autumn, but also because the summer months provide the ideal drier, warmer weather to carry out the work.

An in-house team also enables contractors involved in EPC upgrade projects to schedule work flexibly around the needs of the social housing provider and individual tenants. Communicating clearly with tenants and managing their expectations is an important aspect of the brief and will help tenants to feel more in control of the upgrade process. This includes working collaboratively with the social housing provider to communicate to the tenants the benefits of the improvements to their property and ask for their patience while the work is carried out. For Edgeley Construction, this involves engaging with tenants to keep them informed about the programme and how it will affect them while keeping disruption to a minimum.

A meticulous approach to health and safety is also an essential requirement for delivering EPC upgrade projects to a high standard. Contractors will need to be accountable for the safety training and best practice of their teams, along with the skills deployed. For this reason, contractors with an in-house team of skilled tradespeople are ideally placed to carry out the work, because they can be accountable for both the quality of workmanship and the required level of health and safety training.

Sustainable future

Whether a social housing landlord has secured part of the Government’s £179m pot or not, upgrading the energy performance of social housing properties as part of routine maintenance activities will play a vital role in tackling fuel poverty. It is an opportunity to improve both living environments and our natural environment for a more sustainable future.  www.edgeley.co