Northern Ireland Housing Executive to retrofit 300 homes by spring 2025

As of March 2023, 49% (37,790) of Northern Ireland’s 77,190 social rented homes had an Energy Performance Certificate of Band C or higher, according to government data.

Grainia Long, chief executive of the Housing Executive, said: “Our low-carbon retrofit programme will deliver a ‘whole-house’ solution with the desired outcome of reducing carbon emissions, lowering householder bills and providing a healthier environment.

“A range of interventions will help us achieve this, including improving energy efficiency measures through retrofitting, the introduction of low-carbon heating options like air source heat pumps, and the use of renewable energy for power generation and electric storage.

She said the initiative will “help us combat the very real pressures created by fuel poverty and the cost of living crisis”.

Ms Long said the scheme follows the completion of its first large-scale retrofit programme with “support from the European Regional Development Fund and match funding from the Housing Executive at over £31m”.

She added: “Thanks to this programme, 1,400 of our houses are warmer [and] more energy efficient and have a reduced carbon footprint.”

In 2022-23, a total of £67m was invested in energy efficiency measures by the Housing Executive, the Department for Communities and EU funding.

In September, the Housing Executive completed its first new social homes in 25 years. The six semi-detached houses in Sunningdale Gardens, Belfast, were built to the energy-efficient Passivhaus standard using modern methods of construction.

Between 1975 and 1996, it built more than 80,000 homes, but has not developed at any scale since 2001-02, when housing associations became the main providers of new social housing in the region.