Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund: majority of councils failed to retrofit single home by deadline
More than half of the councils that received funding as part of a scheme to decarbonise social housing failed to retrofit a single home by the project’s deadline, Inside Housing can reveal.
Of the 17 councils that initially received funding as part of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator, nine (53%) confirmed they did not retrofit a single property by the fund’s deadline of December last year (see table below).
Inside Housing sent Freedom of Information requests to all of the local authorities involved in the project, which saw £61m allocated to retrofit more than 2,100 social homes to have an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of C or higher.
To date, Clackmannanshire Council is the only local authority to complete its retrofit project. At just 15 homes, it is the smallest project covered by the fund.
The majority of the other councils have received an extension from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and are aiming to complete their projects within the coming months.
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However, Warwick Council confirmed that it has handed the funding back to the BEIS due to “unachievable deadlines”, while Sunderland Council has been removed from the government’s list of successful bidders. Sunderland Council did not respond to a request for comment.
The Social Housing Decarbonisation Demonstrator was first announced in July 2020.
At the time, the government said it was “an initial investment to learn lessons and catalyse innovation in retrofitting for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund” – a £3.8bn 10-year fund that the Conservative Party committed to in its 2019 election manifesto.
Inside Housing also asked councils participating in the demonstrator fund to provide the most recent monthly monitoring reports that they sent to the BEIS. The reports provide an update on progress and highlight any challenges the projects are facing.
All of the councils who provided these reports cited supply chain issues as a key reason as to why their project has been delayed.
In its latest report, Fenland Council, which is retrofitting 120 homes in partnership with Clarion, said “the air-source heat pump shortage has become a programme-wide issue affecting all brands and suppliers”. It also said roofing materials, glazing and insulation were affected by material shortages.
Leeds Council, which is retrofitting 190 properties, said its roof installation programme was roughly six weeks behind “due to the knock-on effect of the [air-source heat pump] supply issue”.
A shortage of skilled labourers and difficulty accessing properties during the coronavirus lockdowns were also highlighted as problems by multiple local authorities.
In a statement, Nottingham Council, which is due to retrofit 104 properties, said: “A number of factors have contributed to all local authorities not completing retrofits. Whole house retrofits are complex, and skills and expertise to drive such projects, while growing, are still not widely developed.”
Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator: homes retrofitted to date
| Council | Number of homes retrofitted by March 2022 | Number of homes council aimed to retrofit | Money allocated |
| Aberdeen | 0 | 100 | £2.2m |
| Argyll and Bute | 0 | 130 | £1.2m |
| Clackmannanshire | 15 | 15 | £300,000 |
| Cornwall | 0 | 45 | £1m |
| Fenland | 55 | 120 | £4.5m |
| Leeds | 10 | 190 | £4.2m |
| Barking & Dagenham | 0 | 230 | £9.6m |
| Manchester | Did not provide figure | 164 | £3.1m |
| Northampton | 0 | 150 | £3m |
| Nottingham | 0 | 104 | £2.3m |
| Nottinghamshire | 0 | 25 | £800,000 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 1 | 535 | £19.4m |
| Stratford-on-Avon | 0 | 69 | £1.4m |
| Stroud | At least 28 (does not include homes retrofitted by partners) | 50 | £1m |
| Sunderland | N/A | ||
| Warwick | 0 | 50 | £1.4m (money was returned) |
| Wychavon | Did not provide figure | 236 | £5.8m |
The council also said that a COVID-driven spike in demand for designers and installers in the domestic construction has meant there were less people available to work on the demonstrator projects, while the “impact of COVID and adjustments in trade in goods and services since leaving the EU have had a significant impact on both availability and cost of materials”.
A BEIS spokesperson said: “As the name of the scheme suggests, the Social Housing Demonstrator Fund is a trial demonstrator fund. It is not, and was never intended to be, an established fund for the wholesale retrofitting of homes across the UK. It is simply wrong to categorise it as such.
“While some projects have experienced delays due to the pandemic and global supply issues, the scheme is on track to deliver on its primary purpose: providing warm and sustainable homes for social housing tenants while trialling innovative methods.”
In February, the BEIS revealed the 69 projects that will receive a share of £179m as part of the first wave of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
The winning bidders are expected to retrofit 20,000 properties by the end of March next year.
Last year, the Public Accounts Committee published a report that criticised BEIS for “persistently failing to learn lessons from previous energy-efficiency schemes”.
The report, which was on the failed Green Homes Grant scheme, criticised the department for the short timescales and overly complex nature of previous housing retrofit projects.
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