14 Tackling Fuel Poverty with Smarter Housing Solutions Round Table Review


is created, aff ecting the relevant regulatory framework: “Looking at whether that then turns the properties into a heat network, and whether you then have to comply with the new consumer standards that are coming in, that’s a question that I had that I haven’t had answered yet.” She concluded: “It’s about the right technology for the right home; I think it


will end up being a mix of diff erent things.” T e chair asked whether cooling would start to become a new use for heat pumps and whether it was likely to be offi cially recommended by Government policy in future. Joshua Deru (on behalf of the CCC) said the Government is “still working out heat networks.” David Patrick gave an example of a heat network in a Silvertown, east London


regeneration project, where Dimplex was providing water to water units, feeding off an ambient loop fed by a fi ſt h generation heat network. He explained: “In 15 years there will be 6,500 homes heated and cooled independently and returning energy; almost self-suffi cient.” Piers Williamson mentioned other examples of heat networks being owned


by local authorities, at Newcastle and in Swansea, where a Woolworths is being converted into social housing, “with an industrial scale heat exchanger.”


DATA SOLUTIONS Kyle Brown of Chameleon Technology asked: “How do we make better use of the data that’s already out there to tackle fuel poverty?” He asserted that using data correctly, including to prove effi ciencies, “was the means to avoid the scare stories around renewables,” and the round table agreed that monitoring installed solutions, in partnership with tenants, would increasingly become central for ensuring fuel poverty was guarded against. Piers Williamson told the group that the key was “to involve the energy


providers, and contractors; also housing associations need a way of dealing with multiple funders and we need to craſt the able to pay market, bringing people together; diff erent bodies, including tech.” Kyle Brown concluded: “T e data is all there, we need to get a balance between what the HA wants and what the tenant wants.” Rachel Taylor steered the topic of harnessing data’s potential back to the


crucial need to inform and work with tenants, to ensure they don’t feel they are being manipulated or surveilled. She said: “Consent is important. It needs to be a sophisticated approach, and be clear on the objectives for the data.” Piers Williamson commented that further that the industry needs data that “combines asset data with how people are using it; detailed stuff .”


IN HOT WATER Tony Gordon of Showersave then posed his question to the group: “What is the impact of neglecting hot water when determining Government policy.” He admitted that “the question itself is clearly telling you that I’m not entirely enamoured by policy; I’ve been on this journey 18 years trying to commercialise a very simple wastewater heat recovery system.” He was joined by David Patrick of co-sponsor Glen Dimplex in entreating Government to give more support to innovative solutions; he explained that the hot water-only heat pump the fi rm has produced, with no outdoor unit required, had “yet to be recognised as a heat pump in the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.” He said this was “just another example of how hot water is kind of dismissed.” At the same time, the Government has intervened to drive effi ciency with


the Future Homes Standard and the enabling Home Energy Model soon to be introduced, but with some questionable assumptions on water use, according to our sponsors. While Gordon said that hot water “isn’t the last mile solution any more, it’s a driver,” based on the likelihood it will present the largest source of emissions in future effi cient home designs, “HEM reckons we probably shower about 1.6 times a week each, based on old data from one manufacturer.” Also, the ‘notional house type’ in HEM is based on heat pumps with an underestimated Coeffi cient of Performance of 2.5, which means “you can remove any water saving device you want aſt er that.” T ere was also some discussion about the practicalities of installing heat


pumps, including the required hot water cylinders, into existing social homes, David Patrick asserting that they were “a real benefi t to the grid.”


COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES Piers Williamson of Sustainability for Housing advocates for communications to tenants around effi ciency measures in “language they will understand”


RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INDUSTRY & GOVERNMENT


• Tony Gordon, Showersave: We have to look at this gas and electricity price diff erence, how can you electrify heat and put up the price of electricity? It’s bonkers.


• Dr Marco Picco, University of Lancashire: There are diff erent solutions to diff erent problems, so a mix is the way to go, and heat pumps are not the solution to everything.


• Kyle Brown, Chameleon Technology: I would ask the Government to update the specifi cation of smart meter data and make it modern and fi t for purpose, and put it in the hands of the people who can benefi t from it.


• Becky Ritchie, Clarion Housing Group: Longer term funding streams than three year funding waves where each year is treated slightly separately. This would help with scaling.


• Greg Robinson, Mears: Use lessons learned and evidenced programmes to provide a national archetype guide to support organisations who don’t have the in-house expertise.


•


John Kolm-Murray, Turner & Townsend: The Government should go harder on place-based delivery, they rowed back a bit in the Warm Homes Plan. It ticks all the boxes, on industry collaboration and effi ciencies, community engagement, grid capacity, and jobs and skills.


• Rebecca Rieley, HACT: Explore more strongly how tenants can be your allies, see them as an asset in a ‘just transition.’


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Stewart Thompson, Intergas: Let’s see the real price of electricity, stop subsidising gas, and recognise low carbon technologies in RDSAP, and not see it as a negative.


• Piers Williamson, Sustainability for Housing: Industry is a bit of a laggard on ‘nudge’ psychology, we need to be able to explain what we are talking about to average tenants in language they will understand.


• David Patrick, Glen Dimplex: Government needs to recognise the value of a wealth of diff erent technologies in reducing energy consumption and cost, and how to incentivise them.


• Faisal Butt, Legal & General Aff ordable Homes: What is the role institutional capital can play in delivering the Government’s sustainability agenda?


Housing Management & Maintenance Summer 2026


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