Round Table Review: Exploring Solutions for Decarbonising Social Housing 15
industry needed the Department to appoint more Resident Liaison Offi cers (RLOs), as her team were currently relying on their contractors’ RLOs. Stephen Tracey of Wates and Paul Norman said funding EPC C would not get anywhere near the net zero, although that was an increasingly politically sensitive target. Norman said that rather than the “£100m or £150m” for EPC C, “it’s two or three billion to get to net zero.” Georgina Sommerville said that PVs increasingly being seen as the “easiest way to get to EPC C,” which was “potentially really useful, because it oſt en provides diff erent fi nancial models.” Alison Skillen of Turner and Townsend cited examples of collaboration on
funding, as “so much needs to happen across boroughs,” due to the complex nature of projects. Paul Norman said DESNZ were now having conversations with providers about doing more without funding increases however, and supported the resulting likely increase in private fi nance. Ruth Dent concluded, on funding: ‘“T e housing sector has to get better at working together, because we’re all fi ghting for the same resource, which is driving cost up.”
SKILLS & UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES T e round table discussed the need for comprehensive deep retrofi ts to achieve the hoped for results, including exploring ground source heat pumps as well as air tightness measures. Tania Jennings highlighted the variability in housing conditions, and the diffi culty in achieving identical retrofi ts results as a consequence. T e conversation moved onto the skills gap, with 4,600 contractors going out
of business annually, and the need for better training and collaboration. Ruth Dent said Re:gen took a “creative and collaborative” approach with their supply chain to fi ll the gap between demand and required staff . “We went out to all our soſt ware companies and said, Are you using your apprenticeship Levy, if not can we have it?” She added that, with the supply chain struggling to keep up with demand, one problem was that the sector “isn’t co-operating particularly well with colleges and universities.” As the conversation moved to solutions, Tania Jennings said that social
housing providers need to “identify the pinch points” in projects in order to prioritise installations and ensure they are not counterproductive. She candidly admitted that internal wall insulation was a major obstacle in terms of job schedules: “Trying to get our kitchens and bathrooms team to understand that the only time you’ll ever be able to insulate a kitchen is before you put the cabinets back up.” Delegates said that better fabric including air-tightness measures was causing overheating, particularly in new builds, and agreed that it must be a priority:
Jennings said “anything we can do to reduce pipe lengths, improve insulation around them, move towards smaller water heaters.” T ere was also agreement however that the squeezed time windows inherent to the funding waves of the Warm Homes programme wasn’t conducive to giving the time required to pursue holistic decarbonisation upgrades which brought all factors into consideration.
SESSION 2: SOLUTIONS T e second session of the debate saw delegates questioned by our sponsors on key practical issues, from growing uptake of more innovative heating solutions like underfl oor heating, to improving holistic consideration of all energy and effi ciency measures via collaboration across teams. T ere may not have been defi nitive answers to all the questions, but each was discussed in-depth, with some revealing insights emerging.
HEATING PRIORITIES Stewart T ompson of Intergas Heating’s question tapped into to the core issue of resident motivation for upgrades: “What is the priority for your residents, cheaper energy bills or saving carbon, and why?“ Chair Matt Baird said candidly, as a board member for a housing association: “It’s a diffi cult one; we want to be saving carbon, but how do I make sure my tenant is still paying their rent, and they keep their home and they keep it safe?” Tania Jennings countered: “Why is it one or the other?,” to which Baird
responded: “Because it will cost money.” Alison Skillen added further clarity from observing the current central drivers towards fuel poverty: “All of the policies, all of the criteria, all of the eligibility, are about cheaper bills. T at is the only conversation that’s happening at the moment.” She said that even the Government’s changing the programme’s name from the SHDF to the Warm Homes Fund was a signal of this. Skillen said that for providers, “the criteria has always been what you do to
make sure that whatever you’re doing doesn’t disadvantage the residents.” Paul Norman said he learned during the SHDF that “just saying I’m going to come and spend thousands in your home and it’s going to be cheaper to run, doesn’t get you in the door.” Tania Jennings said: “We have genuinely had people turn down a 100K retrofi t because they would have to clear their loſt .” Skillen concluded: “T ere are a whole lot of competing priorities,” and Matt
Baird asserted: “T is is why it makes it so hard to get things done.” Stephen Tracy from Wates said it came down to allowing residents the choice between capital savings and lower bills: “if you take away that choice, it might give you an
Housing Management & Maintenance December/January 2026
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