One-third of social housing tenants cannot afford to heat home

The social housing sector is looking to deliver low carbon solutions to build a more climate-resilient society, Dr Donal McManus, CEO of the ICSH, told the conference.

He told the conference that retrofitting social housing to solve heating issues is essential for climate action but also to solve issues of fuel poverty.

"Key low carbon housing solutions include achieving the highest energy rating possible in new build homes and embarking on a wide-scale retrofitting programme," Dr McManus said.

He welcomed a government commitment of €45m for retrofitting, announced earlier this week as part of Budget 2020.

"Our sector is ready to begin an ambitious retrofit programme of older Approved Housing Body homes. Housing associations are flexible and we believe we can deliver at scale and cost-effectively.

Fuel poverty amongst households because of poor energy performance of homes can be alleviated through these measures. As it stands, one-in-three housing association tenants do not currently find it affordable to heat their homes. So retrofitting is not only a necessary climate action but a poverty proofing measure too.

Ron Van Erck, co-founder of Energiesprong, a Dutch company that specialises in retrofitting, told the conference how his company began as a government-funded innovation programme to create improved energy efficiencies in the Dutch market as a standard.

Around 2,000 Energiesprong homes have been completed there, of which around 60% were renovations of existing properties and 40% new builds.

Under the scheme, builders were incentivised to improve efficiency and speed, with turnaround times to retrofit houses as low as three days in some cases. It used social housing as a launch pad before rolling out across the private sector. Energiesprong has since been rolled out in the UK, Italy, France and Germany.