On Wednesday this week, we proudly chaired a session at the Green Retrofitting and Property Decarbonisation Conference. The session was geared towards preparing for the retrofit challenge and discussed what your business can do.
We heard from our 4 excellent speakers (Jo Hills, Richard Ellis, Madeleine Gabriel and Jeanette Hodges) on a variety of issues which pervade the decarbonisation challenge and what the social housing sector can do to make a difference in the battle against climate change.
The key points to take away from the session and for social housing providers to consider as they embark on their development of their net zero strategies are:
- Ensure you get a comprehensive set of data on housing stock and efficiency levels, to review and analyse the state of that housing stock, in order to establish a way forward.
- Be ready to apply for grant funding. Wave 2 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund will be opening soon (with £800m available between 2022-2024). The funding provided by the government is not intended to solve the problem; it is intended to stimulate the market and drive progress / change.
- Consider once you’ve got your data on housing stock, how to then deal with the planning considerations at local authority level, to ensure your prospective retrofitting works are viable.
- Engage with your consumers early. This issue has a significant impact on people’s lives and most will be forced to embrace these solutions without any ability to participate in the process.
- Do not put this off or delay. Take your opportunities when they arise. Action is needed now and the sooner organisations embark on this process, the better their chances will be of making inroads into the challenge and progressing towards “net zero”.
A full video recording of the session can be accessed here (running time: 1 hour and 16 minutes).
We are here to help you with your journey and advise on how you can develop and implement your net zero strategy and beyond. If you have any queries or would like discuss further, please contact Hannah Langford or James Grinstead.
