Tackling Fuel Poverty with Smarter Housing Solutions Round Table Review 13
SUPPLIERS’ QUESTION TIME Our sponsor delegates confronted some of the challenging administrative and centrally-driven, yet outdated thinking which was preventing the rollout of technologies quickly, including around changes in SAP, and other shiſt s. T e fi rst question (from Intergas Stewart T ompson), prompted a deep dive into the low carbon heating options for upgrading and new build of social homes – from air source and ground source heat pumps, to the need to consider cooling requirements in future. T ompson asked for views on the criteria being used to select heat pump
manufacturers – was it “cost, connectivity, support, aesthetics,” or even “refrigerant type, or brand awareness.” Becky Ritchie from Clarion said that decisions on specifi cation were “led by contractors,” and they were “looking at more strategic procurement, which could help with maintenance down the line.” Faisal Butt from Legal & General said that when looking at the asset life cycle
CLARION CALL Beckie Ritchie of Clarion Housing said that the association’s research showed that many residents were struggling to pay their energy bills
the new Decent Homes Standard, “compared to the Private Rented Sector, social housing is quite well placed to address it. T ey have quite a lot of data on their stock, admittedly a lot of it can be improved, and they have relationships with their clients.” T e associated health impacts of successful retrofi t projects, ostensibly
designed to make tenants resilient against fuel poverty, could be evidenced in future using such sensible data approaches, said delegates, helping to spread the word for future projects.
SOLUTIONS T e second, solutions-focused half of the discussion included focus on the ‘holy trinity’ of heat pumps, PV and battery storage, but also important the data and tech issues surrounding making them work for tenants. On that front, tenant engagement also received a substantial amount of discussion. T e chair Elaine Middleton said that there was an overwhelming need, in
doing the upgrades required to safeguard against fuel poverty, “that we don’t create a future issue for tenants.” Becky from Clarion said that her organisation was taking a “worst fi rst”
approach to retrofi tting, and that MEES (the Minimum Energy Effi ciency Standard) was driving the ‘single hit’ approach, however the view said that waiting to do projects completely holistically could lead to excessive delays.
CONTRACTORS & TENANTS Elaine Middleton said that while there were a lot of great ideas around education of tenants on the solutions being employed to ensure they get the effi ciencies – and lower bills – promised by upgrades, including apps, they “have to want to do it in the fi rst place.” Greg Robinson gave the perspective from Mears on how tenants were
engaged to ensure they are informed and feel more comfortable. “Every retrofi t project we deliver has a Resident Liaison Offi cer so we’ve got that constant source of communication.” However he added that contractors “need to understand their impact as well, and how they’re expected to engage with residents, and that comes down to onboarding, mobilisation and the governance you put around it at the front end.” T e chair commented that there are “pockets of really good practice” but that
the ultimate goal was to make such approaches “common practice across the sector.” Piers Williamson of Sustainability for Housing said that while energy fi rms like Octopus were “quite clever at this stuff . You have to involve all of those diff erent constituencies, and you have to let contractors through the door in the fi rst place. If you get a 50% turnaway rate, blow most of the economics of most schemes before you even start.”
in selecting a heat pump, the “investment and cost of maintenance does play a part, and the other point I’ve come across recently is around aff ordability – the aff ordability of the fuel may drop the SAP rating.” David Patrick from Glen Dimplex commented that the Boiler Upgrade Scheme had been successful, but said that demographic data showed it had “made upgrades more aff ordable for people who were going to do it anyway.” Piers Williamson alluded to the skills crisis in the industry for servicing
decarbonisation of social housing, giving the example of a Housing Association “hoovering up all the engineers who could service heat pumps, because there were so few of them in the market.” He said servicing and maintaining was a “growing problem,” and chair Elaine Middleton said that the “length of time it takes to service a heat pump versus a traditional gas boiler comes into eff ect when you are thinking about your productivity measures.” Greg Robinson of Mears said that the life cycle costs were “signifi cant,” but
that the “big driver for them was post install support for tenants.” He added “a bad experience can travel signifi cantly quicker than a good one.” T ompson said that while it was possible “to turn a home into a power
station,” by generating enough electricity to export, he said “it was not applicable to every property.” In addition, social housing providers have “tended to avoid the on gas side; the low hanging fruit has generally been the off gas properties.” He recommended social housing providers look at hybrid heating systems, which could “off er a soſt landing,” alongside solar PVs and battery storage “to almost eliminate tenants’ energy bills.” T e discussion also touched on the relative benefi ts – and cost and land
take – of ground source heat pump options for social housing. Becky Ritchie of Clarion said that they had been trialling ground source as well as air source, and this had raised questions around whether this technically means a heat network
REDUCING WASTE HEAT, TURNING UP SAVINGS Tony Gordon from co-sponsors Showersave draws attention to the fundamentals around low carbon technology in projects
Housing Management & Maintenance Summer 2026
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