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There’s a lot resting on the Spending Review when it comes to delivering net zero in housing

Housing associations need to retrofit more than two million homes over the next 30 years. The upcoming Spending Review is an opportunity for the government to make a real statement of intent on net zero in housing by delivering on the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, writes Kate Henderson

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The upcoming Spending Review is an opportunity for government to make a statement of intent on net zero by delivering on the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, says @KateNHF #UKhousing

It’s abundantly clear that we can no longer talk about climate change as if it’s a remote threat or another generation’s problem.

This year we’ve seen extreme weather events across the globe: freezing winters in Texas, tragic flash floods in Europe, and Mediterranean heat in the UK. The effects of climate change are being felt today.

These extreme weather events are adding a palpable sense of urgency to the government’s net zero target. This is welcome, but we have a vast amount of work to do, as a nation, to meet it.

The UK Climate Change Committee, chaired by Conservative Lord Deben and made up of a range of highly respected climate experts, published its 2021 progress report in June, issuing a stark warning.

They made it clear that, as it stands, the national carbon-reduction targets are likely to be missed “by a huge margin”. They highlighted that in recent years “there has been little of the necessary progress in upgrading the building stock”.


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When I speak to our members about this, it is evident that housing associations know they have a huge opportunity to make a difference here. Our sector supports the government’s ambition to improve the energy efficiency of homes and to find cleaner ways of heating them – not only to help tackle climate change but to save our residents money, combat fuel poverty and to create jobs.

Many of our members own thousands of homes and so are uniquely placed to decarbonise at scale, focusing not just on each individual home one at a time but thinking about the best solutions for whole streets, estates and in some cases even entire neighbourhoods.

But I also often hear understandable concerns about the enormity of the challenge. Housing associations need to retrofit more than two million properties over the next 30 years. And this is on top of the need to provide essential safety remediation on a large number of buildings and deliver thousands of new affordable homes.

The concerns I hear most frequently expressed by members are about how we are going to fund and finance the work and how we plan and prepare for 2050, given the lack of policy and regulatory clarity.

I’m pleased to say that the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) own decarbonisation project is gathering pace. We are working with Savills to clarify both the cost and potential funding models for the work.

We are developing a ‘roadmap to net zero’ with our members and consultancy Shift Environment. This will explore what net zero means in the context of social housing and what possible trajectories there are to reaching net zero.

I hope that the roadmap, which we will launch this autumn, will give housing associations greater clarity and direction as we navigate addressing the challenges of net zero.

However, it is clear that this work won’t be possible without successive governments committing to a long-term view on how to decarbonise the country’s housing stock – which will take decades.

The upcoming comprehensive Spending Review later this year is a golden opportunity for the government to make a real statement of intent on net zero by delivering on the 2019 Conservative manifesto commitment of a £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF).

While we’ve seen some welcome initial announcements about the SHDF for 2021/22 (in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) language this is known as Wave 1), a substantial announcement at the Spending Review about the future scale and scope of SHDF would be a real game-changer for the sector.

“Climate change is here, and the government and all businesses and sectors need to pull together to play their part to prevent emissions causing further damage”

If the government brings forward the promised £3.8bn SHDF between now and 2030, this would support the sector to bring as many homes as possible to have an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of C through fabric-first measures. A 30% match fund from the sector to the SHDF would bring the funding into alignment with the Climate Change Committee’s own estimates for improving the energy efficiency of housing association homes.

I’m also looking forward to seeing the government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy, which was recently delayed. We hope this will answer a number of questions regarding any additional funding needed for greener energy sources and confirm whether the EPC C deadline for all social housing will be brought forward to 2028, as the Climate Change Committee has strongly argued for.

As a society we cannot afford any more inaction or delay. Climate change is here, and the government and all businesses and sectors need to pull together to play their part to prevent emissions causing further damage.

Housing may be an often overlooked contributor to climate change in the public eye. Despite that, housing associations are determined and ambitious when it comes to making homes greener and warmer for residents, and they are ready to play their part.

I’m looking forward to sharing the NHF’s roadmap and hope the sector and the NHF – working closely with government – can use the energy galvanized at the Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in November to turn these plans into a reality.

Kate Henderson, chief executive, National Housing Federation

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