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National Wealth Fund urges councils to pursue privately funded retrofits
The National Wealth Fund has urged councils to pursue privately funded retrofits, saying they can help town halls reach their net zero goals.
Privately funded retrofits can help councils reach their decarbonisations goals, the National Wealth Fund has said #UKhousingThe UK’s sovereign wealth fund, formerly known as the UK Infrastructure Bank, has partnered with large UK banks such as Barclays and NatWest to offer loans to registered providers for social housing retrofit programmes.
Speaking at a media roundtable during the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF), Iain Watson, director of local authority advisory and lending at the National Wealth Fund, said that private finance should be combined with grants to help local authorities meet their net zero goals.
Grants alone, he explained, were insufficient to fund decarbonisation efforts, and private investment in retrofits, including solar panels, could give companies a long-term return on their investments through a cash-flowed programme over 20 years or so.
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David Dunne, chief officer of strategic place planning, city regeneration and environment at Aberdeen City Council, said that there were 23,000 council homes in Aberdeen and decarbonising these along with other non-domestic buildings would “bankrupt” the local authority.
Smaller local authorities were particularly at a disadvantage, he added.
Speakers at the roundtable also included Kelly Crews, head of decarbonisation service at Willmott Dixon; Simon Hodson, executive director of UK capital markets and sustainability lead for residential and living at JLL; Justin Olosunde, senior finance and investment manager at West of England Combined Authority; Katy Harris, preconstruction director at Seddon; and Liam Gillard, senior programme manager at Salix Finance.
The roundtable was hosted by Karen Carter, director of national delivery at Pagabo, and Tom Retallick, senior framework manager at Pagabo.
The speakers discussed a Pagabo survey which revealed that out of 171 respondents, just 25% believed prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s target to cut emissions by 81% by 2035 is achievable.
The same survey asked respondents what presented a significant challenge to achieving decarbonisation, and 80% indicated a lack of funding.
But the speakers said that another net zero challenge was the huge shortage in the skilled workforce.
Ms Crews said that retrofitting in the local community or within schools could help raise awareness among young people and inspire them into these careers.
But an agreed strategy is also essential, Ms Harris said.
She explained: “To employ an apprentice, we need three to five years of work for them to get the amount of training that they need to do the job that they do.
“We want to keep on employing apprentices, and apprentices want to work for us; we received 2,500 applications this year, and that’s just in our region. So, there are people that want to work in our industry, and we need to be able to offer them those jobs.”
Earlier this month, over 100 councils called on the government to invest at least £12bn over five years to upgrade social homes.
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