Making homes more energy efficient

Making homes more energy efficient

Thanks to £2m funding from the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 1 and our own match funding, we undertook a programme to make 91 homes in Ouston, Durham and Otterburn in Northumberland more energy efficient and to lower customers’ energy bills.

The work included installing loft, underfloor and external wall insultation, solar panels, and air source heat pumps.

We have since secured a grant of over £580,0000 through SHDF Wave 2 funding. Added to the money we already have earmarked for retrofit, we will be investing £3.6m in improving the energy efficiency of 218 homes in Northumberland and Durham over the next two years. 

We still have a long journey to reach net zero and we realise the need to balance new technologies with both environmental impact and customer savings. The table below shows the investment we need to make to get our existing stock to SAP C, SAP B and net zero, and what this will mean for fuel bills. The ‘mean realistic fuel bill’ column provides an interesting insight into the benefits of raising our houses above SAP C for customers, as well as the need for further technological development to make ambitions like net zero truly affordable.

C18. How is the housing provider mitigating the following climate risks:

- Increased flood risk
- Increased risk of homes overheating

SHIFT carries out an independent assesment of our flood risk data and their latest analysis shows that 94.79% of our homes are classified as being at ‘low risk of flooding’.

SHIFT’s analysis also tells us that 98.5% of homes are estimated to be at low risk of overheating. The overheating analysis includes baseline data such as build dates, property archetypes, presence of communal heating, population density and local climate. We also class supported housing and retirement living as potential risk factors due to older and sometimes vulnerable residents. As a mitigation, our extra care schemes are designed using the HAPPI (Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation) principles, which advised us on the most effective ventilation for safety and added comfort.

C19. Does the housing provider give residents information about correct ventilation, heating, recycling etc. Please describe how this is done.

Our customer magazine regularly provides tips on how to reduce energy consumption, along with advice about ventilation, heating and recycling.

When customers move into a new build home, we provide them with a Home User Guide as well as a tenants’ handbook. The guide explains how to use various equipment in the home including heating and ventilation along with information on recycling, public transport and cycling routes.

The recycling section of the guide includes bin collection dates and the impact of using internal recycling bins. The guide also encourages circular economies, recommending customers to pass on reusable waste such as unwanted furniture, providing contact details for a selection of charitable schemes.

We provide all customers with our tenants’ handbook to help them with day-to-day living in their homes. The handbook includes sections on how to prevent condensation by reducing the amount of moisture in the air and maintaining good
ventilation. We recently added a ‘Being Green’ section providing money saving tips on heating and energy usage and sharing National Energy Action’s Home Energy Checklist.

We also offer useful advice at opportune moments. Our gas engineers offer advice to residents on energy efficiency during their annual checks and, during customer contact visits, our Housing Team will ask about any problems with heating management, condensation and damp and mould, and provide leaflets with further information.