If levelling up is the priority, then investment in net zero is a good place to start
Government wants to level up. Colette McKune says that investment in retrofitting is the obvious thing to do
Fuel shortages, rising energy bills, skills shortages, homelessness, climate change and the Universal Credit uplift cancelled.
“Housing has a huge role to play in meeting net zero targets – my hope was that the party conference season might help us more understand more about how this will be achieved”
These were the issues on the minds of many of us heading into the recent Conservative Party Conference.
They were also all issues sidestepped by Boris Johnson as he made his headline speech.
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Perhaps this isn’t surprising. It was a speech big on colour but light on detail.
Since becoming chief executive at ForHousing, climate change has been one of my top priorities.
Housing has a huge role to play in meeting net zero targets – my hope was that the party conference season might help us understand more about how this will be achieved.
“Major investment is needed in retrofitting homes – and this is where we hope more clarity will come in the next few weeks”
Regionally, I’ve been working with the Greater Manchester Housing Providers (GMHP) group as net zero lead and sit on Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester Retrofitting Taskforce, along with the Low Carbon Buildings Challenge Group for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Nationally I’m a member of the National Housing Federation’s Sustainability Strategy Group.
Across our region and the wider housing sector, there is no shortage of willingness for collaboration and action on climate change.
At GMHP, we’re co-ordinating, planning and driving action across five key workstreams covering finance, data-sharing, communication, initiatives and engagement.
At ForHousing, we’re working closely with tenants as part of a decarbonisation initiative and are inviting them to have energy monitoring equipment installed into their homes for 12 months.
The live data, along with the feedback from this data and tenants, will be used to inform retrofitting works each home needs to help reduce carbon emissions, without increasing energy costs, and will shape wider investment in other homes.
We’ve also made a funding commitment to achieving Energy Performance Certificate Band C in all homes by 2030 as part of ForHousing’s wider mission to deliver quality homes and places.
There is good work being done.
But to truly have an impact, major investment is needed in retrofitting homes – and this is where we hope more clarity will come in the next few weeks.
We need timeframes, targets, and clarity on funding – a strategy to unite the multiple sectors involved in delivering this massive task.
The phrase that was repeated over and again in the prime minister’s speech was ‘levelling up’.
This is a clear priority – as the newly rebranded Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities had already suggested.
Working with tenants to upgrade their homes so that they are greener, healthier and cheaper to run provides a significant opportunity to do just that.
It’s an opportunity to create skilled jobs that we’ve struggled to replace in the construction sector since the 2008 financial crash, to address fuel poverty and to invest in communities.
It is also a chance to put tenants at the heart of investments in their homes and neighbourhoods.
It is tenants who will be most impacted. These are interventions in their homes.
It is absolutely vital that we co-produce plans with them. This is not just about putting new kit in homes, it’s a big change in how we live our lives.
If it is skills, new homes and better infrastructure that will drive the levelling-up agenda, then net zero investment has a big role to play.
Colette McKune, chief executive, ForHousing
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