Eco doctor: energy efficiency in tall buildings

The problem

In 2002, the Shoreditch Trust new deal for communities housing task group faced three major energy issues:

• finding an affordable method of increasing the energy efficiency of the local social housing stock - the majority of the stock was constructed through the 1950s, 60s and 70s and is generally medium to high rise, so cannot be treated with roofing or cavity wall insulation;
• replacing out-of-date district heating networks and unreliable boilers, many of them oil fuelled; and
• helping residents to adopt behaviours that would enable them to conserve energy and money.

The solution

The trust carried out a feasibility study to find the most appropriate retrofit heating and cooling system.

It quickly emerged that the most efficient method would be a replacement district heating system with a combined heat and power engine as back-up, and eventually as a replacement for the existing gas boiler. But there were three serious barriers to delivery:

• Community engagement - resident consultation revealed that one-third of households in the Shoreditch area were already connected to a failing district heating system. There was, therefore, widespread hostility to continuing with any form of communal supply.

The trust made contact with the newly-formed tenant management organisation. During several public meetings, the trust investigated the difficulties that had occurred with the district heating system.

The trust spoke to expert consultants and identify that the issues arose as a result of changed management structures and service providers.

It reassured tenants that the new system was more robust and had better in-built maintenance and service provisions. In 2004, more than 30 residents attended the trust board meeting to successfully lobby in favour of the project.

• Creating partnerships - the funding and procurement process, while protracted and complex, brought together funding streams from local, regional and national government to produce something greater than the sum of its monetary parts.

A successful application was made to the trust board and Hackney Council to release decent homes funds to install CHP-ready distribution boxes and external pipework.

• Financing - through creating workable partnerships, the community has managed to deliver this scheme. As Footprint went to press, it was announced that a combination bid submitted to the London Development Agency and the Homes and Communities Agency for funds to install the engine to power the system had been successful.

The partnership will ensure that all of the homes in the initial TMO are connected to the distribution boxes and pipework. Works will be completed by summer 2011, nine years after inception. Pipework will also be extended across the road to supply affordable heat to two further TMOs.

The future

The installation is a low carbon exemplar project, saving a minimum of 45,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next 25 years at its initial capacity of 700 homes.

The partnership delivery model has built an appetite for socially cohesive and low carbon living among the 60 per cent of residents who have been engaged, including the one-third leaseholder population. The local community now believes that there is a purpose in contributing to lowering harmful carbon emissions because they recognise that this saves money and improves the lives of everyone in their area.

This is a pioneering undertaking with the potential to be replicated on hundreds of estates in London and other major cities throughout the UK. It also matches the profile of the majority of the 370,000 homes across London already identified by the Greater London Authority as suitable for district CHP.

By Hugh Goulbourne, a solicitor at Cobbetts LLP; Micheal Pyner, chief executive of Shoreditch Trust NDC; and Anna Eager, director of Urban Life

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment