Retrofit agenda needs a firm lead

The cost of retrofitting England’s housing stock to deliver a drop in carbon emissions of at least 80 per cent by 2050 is around £500 billion.

Not my estimate but that of the chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency, Sir Bob Kerslake. Social housing’s share of this sum is estimated at £100 billion. These truly are giant green figures, but is the new government taking the strides needed to deliver these funds?

In its proposed Energy Security and Green Economy Bill, the coalition has made some eye-catching pledges. Up to £6,500 will be available for every English household to retrofit their homes to cut more than a quarter of their carbon emissions by 2020. As proposed by the previous government, this estimated £42 billion investment will come from a mixture of ‘pay as you save’ schemes from residents enjoying lower fuel bills and an extension of the ‘obligation’ on energy suppliers to pay to cut carbon emissions. So far so green and certainly an investment not to be sniffed at in straitened times.

But, impressive as it is, experts say investment on this scale will only get English homes part of the way to hitting the 2020 target, never mind the far more costly step of achieving an 80 per cent reduction. Housing minister Grant Shapps claims that the 2020 target can be delivered for the majority of homes at a cost of £1,500-£2,000, yet Richard Baines at Black Country Housing is typical of industry experts who say this is not the case.

Mr Baines claims a figure of £10,000 is more realistic. This is not simply idle sabre-rattling in the hope of receiving more funds. As two case studies at our Sustainable Social Housing Conference in London showed last week, substantially cutting carbon emissions on Victorian terraced properties can cost tens of thousands of pounds (case studies that will shortly be available on the events page of our website). Our story on Gentoo this week also shows landlords and homeowners are likely to face many pitfalls before they successfully upgrade their homes.

Clearly, costs for later schemes will fall, but it is unlikely they will be to the level Mr Shapps expects. The minister has shown courage on pledging to ensure all new homes are zero carbon by 2016; it is not too late to do so for retrofitting too.