10 Tackling Fuel Poverty with Smarter Housing Solutions Round Table Review
LESSONS FROM THE SECTOR A range of voices from the social housing sector, including guest chair Elaine Middleton of Livin Housing, brought real-world perspectives to bringing tenants through a “just transition” to more energy effi cient properties, assisted by viewpoints from the supply chain
housing providers. She added that HACT’s fuel fund voucher scheme for tenants had distributed over £10 million worth of vouchers over the past fi ve years, showing the continued need for tackling fuel poverty issues across the UK as cost-of-living issues persist and grow. T e event took place in the wake of the publication of the Warm Homes
Plan which includes £5bn directed to upgrading the energy effi ciency of low income households. It also came in the context of the updates to MEES (the Minimum Energy Effi ciency Standard), which establishes a baseline of effi ciency for all tenants, and the investment needed to reach EPC ‘C’ for all properties by 2030, in an otherwise changeable policy environment. All of which add further pressure to already cash-strapped social housing providers. T e round table explored how carbon-cutting upgrades to properties’ heating
and hot water systems in particular could bring cheaper bills for tenants, harnessing modern technology such as metering and data to ensure effi ciency. It also looked at how residents needed to be fully and sensitively engaged in the process, to help build trust and long-term collaboration, as the sector seeks to reduce the 11% of UK households who are currently in fuel poverty. It also looked at wider ‘resilience’ issues around tackling climate change and its eff ects, as well as helping tenants keep warm effi ciently, and have healthier homes. T e practical delivery of solutions was put into real-world contexts with
the help of insights from our sponsor representatives, who all made key contributions. We were joined by Tony Gordon, Managing Director of waste water heat recovery system manufacturer Showersave, who looked at the shortcomings of the Warm Homes Plan for driving innovation. David Patrick, Head of Specifi cation Marketing, Glen Dimplex was present to explain how the heating fi rm had “pioneered a lot of the technology we are familiar with for alleviating fuel poverty. Stewart T ompson, National Specifi cation Manager (Social Housing & New Build), Intergas, looked at the relative issues around both on-gas and off -gas properties for futureproofi ng tenants. And Kyle Brown, Chief Commercial Offi cer at smart meter display provider Chameleon Technology was keen to stress how IT standards needed to be upgraded.
THE CHALLENGE Becky Ritchie from Clarion put the debate into further context from the major provider’s point of view, showing that there were ongoing, and worrying issues for tenants around bills, supporting the need for thought-through, eff ective and sensitive solutions. She said that as part of the close relationship Clarion tries to
foster with tenants, they carry out an annual survey with tenants, “T e Index.” Last year, this showed that 58% were struggling fi nancially, and “not able to pay their bills on a regular basis,” and 48% had diffi culty paying gas or electricity bills specifi cally. Bearing this fi nancial context in mind, she said Clarion was focused on
creating the “just and fair transition” for retrofi ts, as upfront costs for measures could be as challenging for tenants as the longer term cost rises which measures were designed to off set. Ritchie said that part of the RSP’s Climate Transition Plan was identifying “how can we deploy the right technologies to ensure that residents aren’t going to have increased bills, and that we’re limiting their bills as much as we possibly can.” T e opportunity around retrofi t and new build with solutions brought
to the fore for prevention of fuel poverty was stressed by the chair and the delegates, including the health impacts to tenants, but also the savings possible for RSPs using modern, data-driven approaches. T e dangers and challenges for the sector in doing so, however, were not shied away from, with several delegates pinpointing the unintended consequences of upgrades, in particular overheating properties. However, Williamson warned that the housing sector was “trying to do this
at a time of unprecedented strain on housing associations.” He said that the cost of debt had “doubled” since 2018, and that while there will be “a lot of incentives, a lot of carrots,” he “worried that the retrofi t agenda was actually a ‘top of the market’ thing, ie not suitable for mainstream adoption when fi nances are so tight. T e big problem in producing business cases for retrofi t was that “unless you
turn your house into a power station, there is no fi nancial return for most of this – the return is about alleviating fuel poverty.” T e context of Section 106 homes was brought up by Tony Gordon of
Showersave as a crucial part of the issue, in terms of whether developers were as engaged with the fuel poverty-related solutions here as in the more housing association-led schemes. He asked Faisal Butt of L&G how much of what they did was “developer led or housing association led,” as Showersave had installed in Section 106 houses, and “I can guarantee that 50% didn’t know they had it in there, as it just happens to be part of the development spec.” Butt answered that the provider had a “good partnership” with both types, “but sometimes with the larger PLCs you have to leverage a little bit more infl uence so you get the better outcomes for residents.”
Housing Management & Maintenance Summer 2026
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