A membership body of northern landlords is calling on both the government and opposition parties to commit to a £6bn a year investment in home energy efficiency across all tenures in the next Parliament.The Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) is making the call for fresh funding commitments alongside the launch of a new report in the House of Commons today.
The Real Homes, Real Change report will showcase some of the great work that northern housing providers have already delivered to help meet the net zero challenge across the region.
The NHC said the projects span different geographies, tenures, housing types and technologies to demonstrate the momentum that’s building across the sector that manages more than one in six of the region’s homes.
Karbon resident Colin Barnes (above) has seen his home benefit from a retrofit programme funded with support from the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF).
Mr Barnes said: “My home must be about 70 years old. It really needed modernising so it could be warmer and stronger. The programme has given it a total overhaul. It’s incredible really. The work has included more insulation as well as improvements to the roof.
“The difference it makes to the warmth of the house was immediate and really noticeable. I just pop the heating on for 20 minutes at a time because the house stays warm for so long.”
Despite residents like Mr Barnes benefiting from SHDF funding, the NHC is concerned that progress is at risk without new funding commitments.
Tracy Harrison, chief executive at the NHC, said: “It’s clear the UK can’t meet its net zero target without upgrading the North’s existing homes. We know that over half the North’s homes, almost 4 million, will require energy efficiency upgrades within the next 10 years. But the government’s current decarbonisation funding has now all been allocated, which means the cupboard is currently bare.
“The housing sector in the North is playing its part in helping reach net zero, but without a long-term funding commitment from Westminster it risks losing the fantastic momentum that’s been built.”
Mr Harrisson said the additional funding also has the potential to create 77,000 green jobs across the North working on home upgrades into the 2030s.
At the NHC’s annual conference earlier this year, a peer and architect of the Northern Powerhouse initiative told delegates that building more social homes would be better for the region than HS2.
Lord Jim O’Neill shared a recommendation that he became aware of around four years ago, during his time as a commissioner on Shelter’s Social Housing Commission.
The commission recommended, over a 20-year programme, the delivery of 3.1 million more social homes, Lord O’Neill explained.
“The guys behind it all had to sort of keep me away from the… media for the release, because the amount of money that was required to deliver that happened to be a broadly similar number to that of building HS2.”
He added: “And I thought, and still think, that there would probably be a lot more positive multipliers for the country than building HS2.”
