18 August 2021
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3 min read
The Northern Housing Consortium members own or manage nine out of 10 socially rented homes in the North
Around 270,000 homes in the North of England need retrofitting annually over the next 15 years if government energy efficiency targets are to be met, research warns
More than four million homes in the North of England currently fall short of energy efficiency standards that all domestic properties are legally required to meet by 2035, meaning as many as six in 10 homes in the region will need green upgrades fitted over the next 15 years, fresh research estimates.
A major survey of the energy performance of housing in the region, published yesterday by the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC), claims over four million Northern properties will need to be upgraded if they are to comply with the government's target for every home in the country to achieve at least Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) level C by 2035.
As a result research estimates roughly 270,000 Northern homes will need to be upgraded every year between now and 2035 to put the government on track to achieving its goal, underscoring the scale of the challenge ahead to make the UK's housing stock fit for a net zero future.
But the Consortium - which comprises councils and housing associations - said the urgently needed green homes retrofit drive presents a major opportunity for the government to deliver on its promise to 'level up' regional inequalities, estimating that meeting the government's EPC goal could generate some 77,000 new green jobs in the North by the next decade.
Tracy Harrison, chief executive of the NHC, said the figures highlighted the "scale of the challenge" that lay ahead for England's northern regions as they worked to align their homes with the country's climate goals.
"But together we can do this," she added. "Councils and housing associations across the North stand ready to upgrade homes and create thousands of jobs in the process."
To kick start the process, the NHC is calling on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to deliver on his promised £3.8bn funding to upgrade the country's social rented homes and provide a further £2.5bn in grants to help low-income private renters and owner-occupiers boost the energy efficiency of their homes.
"With the Glasgow climate change summit just around the corner, Rishi Sunak must show he is serious about net zero and levelling-up by confirming the long-term energy efficiency funding pledged at the last election, and in doing so, start to build the necessary confidence and capacity in the supply chain to allow us to deliver," Harrison said.
Responding to the research, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) claimed 40 per cent of the country's homes were now rated at EPC Band C or higher, marking a significant increase from nine per cent in 2008.
"We are going further and faster to drive forward decarbonisation, including our manifesto commitment to invest £9bn in improving the energy efficiency of our buildings," BEIS said in a statement. "We also recently announced £300m extra funding to support the local delivery of green home upgrades for social and low-income homes, bringing total spending on energy efficiency measures to £1.3bn."
However, pressure is mounting on the government to set out a clearer policy framework for how it intends to spur the nationwide green retrofitting drive required to bring the UK's carbon-intensive and energy inefficient housing stock in line with its climate goals.
The NHC's appeal comes as a raft of major financiers, installers, construction firms and developers - including Nationwide Building Society, Rockwool and British Gas - today joined forces to demand the government design and launch a national retrofit strategy that can spur a "green housing revolution" across the UK's 29 million properties.
