14 Round Table Review: Exploring Solutions for Decarbonising Social Housing


BUILDING KNOWLEDGE ON RETROFIT BEST PRACTICE Sponsors Intergas Heating Solutions, LHC Procurement Group and Mira Showers and WMS Underfl oor Heating tabled practical questions for at-scale retrofi ts


THE DEBATE: VIEWS ON ‘EPC C’ T e discussion began with a look at the decarbonisation challenge in some detail, but also at the opportunities which are being grasped by social housing providers, working with their supply chains to upgrade thousands of homes. Chair Matt Baird asked where the sector was on the road to EPC ‘C’ 2030, and the conversation quickly delved into the realities of stock condition surveys at scale. Tania Jennings from Lewisham Council said a recent third party EPC survey


of their 19,000 homes was done at pace, and “so many assumptions were made; they were possibly spending 30 minutes in each house.” She said that 2600 properties had more than a 10 SAP point disparity between the survey fi ndings and the data from their own retrofi t assessors (the biggest outlier being a 48 point diff erence). T is “really highlighted the challenge of basing grant funding on EPCs,” she said, as inaccurate EPCs could see homes erroneously denied grant funding, adding: “EPC targets are only as good as the assessor doing them.” Delegates agreed that targeting EPC C was not in itself a strategy for


decarbonising homes, or how to assess the quality of their fabric pre-upgrade. Sue Riddlestone of Bioregional questioned why the EPC platform was “doing so much heavy liſt ing, as it’s not a great metric.” Paul Norman from Clarion said it was “crude,” as it doesn’t account for diff erent home types, and Matt Baird mentioned that Scotland had even dropped its mandatory EPC ‘D’ target, as it was causing “chaos.” Jennings said the “biggest challenge” from some asset team is that “a lot of


times they would prefer not to know.” She said Lewisham encouraged residents to comment in surveys, “because we cannot fi x what we don’t know.” Elaine Middleton of Livin Housing said that despite the range of challenges


that are landing on social housing teams, the focus was currently “too linear” in terms of Warm Homes upgrades, when the causes of a property needing measures might be several, and overlapping. She understood the ethos: “If you can measure it, you can manage it,” and said Government “is happy because


you can fi ll in the form and submit a return, but I think we need to take more control and decide our own strategies.” Middleton added: “T e problem with a target is it is not necessarily the right


thing to do,” instead advocating “using real asset intelligence to make sensible decisions on properties” She agreed with Sarah Daly of Agile Homes, that ”the goalposts keep moving.”


ENGAGING WITH RESIDENTS & FUNDING T e core of successful refurbishments is resident engagement, with residents currently potentially ending up with damp and mould due to fi nancial concerns, said Elaine Middleton. “Because a storage heater was too expensive to run,” they may prioritise paying rent instead for fear of eviction,” she said, however decarbonisation projects can be very disruptive, particularly internal wall insulation. Tania Jennings said for good resident engagement in decarbonisation


retrofi ts, but also to ensure that damp and mould issues are taken care of, and not made worse. As well as providing scope for residents to openly comment on their properties in condition surveys, she said Lewisham was “very clear” to residents in terms of the real implications of retrofi t projects, alongside the benefi ts. She advocated, “don’t sugarcoat things.” Architect Alison Haigh said that resident engagement was “so challenging in


this sector.” She gave the example of retrofi tting underfl oor heating, assuming that residents would need decanting, saying that “already made it so much more complicated.” Kyae Lee of Legal & General said it was important to stress the improved comfort residents would accrue, as this can be a compelling benefi t: “In Green Deal pilots we did, people didn’t even know how much money they were saving, they just said ‘my home is so much more lovely to live in.” Jennings said that educating tenants on the benefi ts of decarbonisation


could prove very fruitful, and they can even educate their neighbours. She said that fully informing residents (both social and neighbouring freeholders) can bring the “level of trust that sometimes gets lost.” She added, however, that the


Housing Management & Maintenance December/January 2026


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