Insulation Feature
Insulation
Help on the road to zero carbon homes
The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund could see social housing providers upgrade the energy efficiency of up to 90,000 homes. Some of these homes will be relatively straightforward to upgrade, others will require a joined-up approach as Caroline Bowler of SIG explains
A
ny maintenance team charged with improving the quality of aging housing will know that it’s challenging. Many social housing providers are struggling with deteriorating properties that can be cold and subject
to damp. Improving their thermal performance can be complicated and no one solution will work for every property.
THE SOCIAL HOUSING DECARBONISATION FUND Tis is a timely and much-needed stimulus to give social housing providers the opportunity to improve their housing stock. In doing so, the initiative has the potential to demonstrate how older homes can be retrofitted, which could provide valuable lessons for both social and private housing. Tis is important for zero carbon objectives because private sector owners
seem very reluctant to invest in their own homes. In its December 2022 report Hitting a brick wall, the Resolution Foundation pointed out that “Close to half (47%) of owner occupier households with inefficient walls think that upgrades are unsuitable for their homes”; are “too much hassle”; and that with an average cost of £8,000 per property, it “would take 18 years to recoup through bill savings”, even with today’s energy prices. Government funding to reduce carbon emissions is therefore welcome,
particularly when the immediate beneficiaries will be the tenants. Te funding announced in March will make a huge difference in improving the quality of life for residents. Te current phase sees a total of £788m awarded to improve the energy efficiency of social housing. Tis fund will enable social housing providers to add cavity wall, loſt
and external insulation, improve ventilation, install heat pumps and replace windows to upgrade as many as 90,000 homes with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating below C. Te Greener Futures Partnership, a collaboration of like-minded housing
associations, has secured £40m in funding under the scheme. It plans to retrofit 5,495 homes with enhancements to the fabric of the buildings and, in addition, replace existing heating and hot water systems with technologies such as air source heat pumps (ASHP), and solar photovoltaic panels (PVs) with battery storage. As with any retrofit initiative, the real challenge for Greener Futures and
other social housing providers is that some homes will be easier and more straightforward to decarbonise than others. In the National Housing Federation and Local Government Association’s
report ‘Hard to decarbonise social homes’, a number of characteristics are identified that may make homes harder to decarbonise including: • Solid walls, where internal or external insulation is required • Flat roof homes or homes with an inaccessible loſt where low-cost loſt insulation cannot be installed
• Terraced homes, where some of the homes are owned by private occupiers unwilling to participate in retrofit schemes which can limit economies of scale
• Heritage homes, particularly in conservation areas • Narrow, hard to fill cavities (less than 50 mm) that are difficult to fill effectively
The UK government is beginning to ramp up efforts to retrofit at least some of the UK’s old and energy inefficient homes
• Space constrained plots, which can affect the installation of external wall insulation or the siting of an ASHP
• High rise flats, particularly those with mixed tenure • Housing on the coast or homes at risk of flooding may make homes harder and more expensive to insulate
• Homes with bespoke features such as bay windows, which make homes harder to insulate and where technical expertise is required to develop appropriate solutions.
Tere may also be external constraints such as planning policy, which may impact which retrofit measures can be installed. Some of these issues require complex solutions to produce improvements
in energy efficiency without producing unwanted side-effects that can actually damage the fabric of an older property.
HOME UPGRADE GRANT Alongside the funding under the SHDF, the government has also awarded an additional £630m to councils through the Home Upgrade Grant to improve the energy efficiency of poorly performing homes without mains gas central heating. A deep retrofit project by Swansea Council – in partnership with the Welsh
School of Architecture – to refurbish a terrace of six council bungalows shows the types of measures that could be applied under this initiative. Te project included external wall and loſt insulation, installation of high specification
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMMAugust/September 2023 | 47
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