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Minister urges sector to carry out energy-efficiency upgrades at same time as building safety work
Both the government and wider sector have a duty to maximise the energy efficiency of social homes while work to improve building safety is being carried out, a minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has said.
Speaking at Inside Housing’s The Retrofit Challenge: Virtual Summit, climate change minister Lord Callanan said: “If there is a chance to maximise the energy efficiency of our social housing supply at the same time as making these homes safer, it is incumbent on all of us to do just that where it is practical.”
He added that “the jewel ambitions of having safer homes and greener homes are integral to the government’s commitment to building back better and building back fairer” following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Social landlords have previously warned that the bills they are facing to fix building safety defects which have arisen as a result of the Grenfell Tower fire could lead to them having to reduce their decarbonisation budgets.
Lord Callanan acknowledged that the housing sector has “huge challenges” ahead, but said there are also “huge benefits to be realised from retrofitting warmer and greener homes”.
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On the topic of funding, Lord Callanan mentioned the Conservative Party’s manifesto commitment to introduce a 10-year £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
Currently the government has announced £110m worth of investment from the programme but has not committed to any funding beyond the next financial year.
Lord Callanan said: “I’d love to be able to say here we have a 10-year funding programme, but that’s not really the way government works.
“We’re trying to provide as much certainty going forward. It’s probably one of the biggest complaints I get from installers, from contractors, from housing associations and local authorities, ‘is you know give us predictability, tell us what’s going to happen over the next five years’.
“We’re endeavouring to do that but it is a challenge in the way the processes in government work.”
Last year, research by Inside Housing found that retrofitting homes to net zero standards is likely to cost the sector a collective £104bn by 2050.
Lord Callanan also confirmed the government’s commitment to introduce “strong minimum standards” on energy efficiency for social landlords through a review of the Decent Homes Standard.
Social landlords in England currently have a target to ensure all of their homes have a minimum energy performance certificate rating of C by 2035, however much stricter targets are currently being imposed in Scotland and Wales.
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