Changing course

Slowly, like a massive cargo ship, the sector has started to turn its focus to the existing stock.    Twenty five million homes need zero carbon refurbishment by 2050. Three broad groups are moving us to the start line.  Here is a look at the lobbyists, the government and the doers who are all needed to move the agenda forward – and what they have been up to.

Lobbyists

The Existing Homes Alliance has launched a number of papers summarising potential funding and policies for driving low carbon refurbishment.  Their Paying for it paper usefully assesses different funding mechanisms for paying for refurbishment of existing stock, laying out possible avenues for the UK to take.

Parliamentary select committees have made a number of noises about the need for greater action. The recently-released progress report to Parliament from the Committee on Climate Change (October 2009) set a goal of 35 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide from residential buildings, compared with 2007 figures. This includes targets such as 10 million lofts and 7.5 million cavities insulated by 2015, 2.3 million solid walls insulated and 12 million non-condensing boilers replaced by 2022. To get there, they suggest government should further support the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target programme, move to a whole house approach, start a wider role out Display Energy Certificates, and a new framework to provide financial and other support for the uptake of renewable heat.

The UK Green Building Council has suggested that government should investigate a pay as you save mechanism. This is a principle where a loan is provided to a house for energy efficient improvements. The payback is financed through these improvements.  When people move on, the link is kept with the house. The Conservative Party has committed more than £6,000 per house to a policy that looks similar to this.  I sit on the group overseeing the pilots and look forward to some splendid proposals.

Government

Funding through the CERT programme has increased by 20 per cent. Standard measures are still the main stay (lofts, cavity walls and lighting) but there is now opportunity to support demonstration projects, trialling new products and schemes and assessing customer reactions.

The Community Energy Savings Programme is providing whole house energy efficiency improvements. CESP is expected to deliver savings of up to £300 for residents as they go street-by-street improving homes. One of the issues that we might need to get on top of is compulsion.  If we are moving along a street improving it, it will be extremely cost efficient to improve all houses on the street.

Following CESP, it is expected that the Heat and Energy Savings Strategy will provide a trajectory to zero carbon for all homes. The potential is exciting. Should we get this right it is not just carbon that will be lost. Fuel poverty will also be significantly reduced.

Feed-in tariffs have potential. Government are currently considering the tariffs and how this could work but the consultation proposal included a tariff for electricity generated by renewable systems, with an additional bonus for energy exported to the grid. Being paid more for energy you do not use is likely to encourage energy efficiency. As an illustration, a house using 4,500 kWh/yr, at a standard rate of 10 pence would cost £450 a year. Where that house is able to generate 1,200 kWh/yr and export 500 kWh/yr, the homeowner earns £55 (rather than the £450 cost) per year. It will be useful to see what government decide. As fuel prices rise, the returns from feed-in tariffs have the potential to make a contribution.

The doers

Leading housing associations are trying things out for themselves. Hyde Housing Association refurbished a terraced house to an 80 per cent carbon dioxide reduction last year. This project is impressive. The improvement is significant considering the SAP was reasonably performing house and the impacts of the works are being monitored. Brilliant.

Gentoo Housing Group is providing honest concise reports on the approaches that best worked when installing low carbon measures into existing homes. The results might surprise you. How many homes did they need to look at to find 100 that could incorporate solar thermal? Check it out at www.sustainablehomes.co.uk

Some private householders are also making moves. ‘Old home super home’ is a collection of home owners that have refurbished old homes to over 60 per cent less carbon. They will even take you inside and talk you through the work they did. 

The sector is sitting up and noticing. There is a plethora of ways that best practise is being shared. The Energy Savings Trust publishes case studies. One other way is through the Sustainable Homes Index For Tomorrow network. SHIFT assists registered social landlords to reduce their environmental impacts. Learning events help each organisation learn the details of how others are leading and knowledge is shared on achieving lower carbon refurbishments but also on helping residents to understand their homes. Great stuff: low carbon homes and low carbon lifestyles.

So, there is a great deal happening - but the goal is mammoth. If you have housing stock, you could pilot an improvement. If you own a home, you should be considering initial steps for improving it. When you hear from the previous chief scientific adviser to the government, that ‘refurbishing our existing housing stock is the single biggest engineering challenge this country has ever faced’, there are two possible reactions. Is it an impossible task or a task that can significantly improve everyone’s lives?  Where do you sit?

Andrew Eagles is managing director of Sustainable Homes

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