You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Shared owners should not be left to foot decarbonisation bill, says Green Party leader
The co-leader of the Green Party has said that the housing sector must “share the cost” of decarbonisation to ensure shared owners and leaseholders are not left with huge bills.
Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Housing’s (CIH) Virtual Housing Festival, Sian Berry said that leaseholders and shared owners are “scared witless” at the thought of being left to pay for decarbonisation in the same way many have been made to pay for fire safety works.
She urged housing providers to “spread the load” to prevent residents being left with huge bills and share “fairly” the benefits from reduced energy costs in order to build viable business cases.
If social landlords do not involve their tenants in decarbonisation planning, leaseholders and shared owners “will end up being treated like they have been over cladding”, Ms Berry said.
READ MORE
Many housing association leaseholders are currently facing huge bills for post-Grenfell fire safety work. Last month, Inside Housing reported that a number of large social landlords were telling leaseholders they will have to pay if the housing association is not able to secure funding through the government’s Building Safety Fund.
Speaking at the same event, Lord Richard Best, chair of the Affordable Housing Commission, said that the social housing sector must “rise to the challenge” when it comes to reducing carbon emissions from the UK’s housing stock.
He said: “We cannot possibly rely on the volume house builders to deliver the goods in terms of responding to the climate emergency.
“They have let us down that oligopoly of major house builders… under almost every heading: quantity, quality, short termism, remuneration for their directors and shareholders at the expense of not least sustainability in what they’ve been producing.”
In terms of retrofitting existing stock, Lord Best compared encouraging small private landlords to retrofit their stock to “herding cats”, and said they are “not professionally equipped” to handle the sustainability challenge.
“The only sector that is going to make a really significant difference both in building new, and in retrofitting what’s already out there in the rented stock… is the social housing sector,” he added.
For access to all of the sessions and networking opportunities at the Housing 2020: Virtual Housing Festival click here
