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Press Coverage
Programmes
This article was originally published by Inside Housing.
By James Riding.
Housing leaders have called for local retrofit schemes to combat public suspicion of net zero.
A report by thinktank Radix Big Tent’s housing commission, shared first with Inside Housing, called for metro mayors to pilot local retrofit schemes in a shift away from “big government”.
Titled Homes Without Harm report, which is backed by house builders, housing associations, build-to-rent landlords and peers, said the net zero narrative currently appears “remote from people’s lives”, leaving residents “sceptical or even hostile towards the idea of change”.
“If big government directives tend to arouse suspicion, let regional powers such as the new mayoral bodies point the way,” it said.
“Local bodies tend to be nimbler, faster and more trusted. Pioneering retrofit schemes, where families are supported in climate-proofing their homes, could compete to provide models for the whole country,” the report stated.
The authors said the government’s English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, which is currently making its way through parliament, should grant mayors tools to bring together small funding pots for retrofit programmes and encourage councils and housing associations to work together instead of being “pitted against one another”.
Mayoral retrofit programmes could be regulated by a special cabinet committee. The bill will introduce a legal requirement for strategic authorities to have regard to the need to improve the health of people in their areas.
“In theory, healthier homes should be among the thousands of homes they are expected to deliver,” it said.
Radix Big Tent’s report made several other recommendations on retrofit to the government. It urged ministers to bring forward the Future Homes Standard and scrap VAT on retrofit to address the “health emergency” of climate change.
Earlier this month, two major sector bodies also called on the government to review VAT on works to existing homes, to zero-rate VAT on building safety works, and to extend the zero-rating of energy-saving materials to 2030.
The report called for tighter regulation around public funds to avoid “past failures” such as the Energy Company Obligation scheme, which resulted in up to 23,000 homes being fitted with faulty external wall insulation.
A long-delayed decision on the Future Homes Standard – which aims to outlaw gas boilers in new homes and require low-carbon heating, better fabric performance and possibly solar panels – has been put back until the end of autumn.
The report called for government to “end the repeated delays” around the Future Homes Standard rules with a swift decision and confirm the policy with legislation.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero have been approached for comment.
Radix Big Tent’s housing commission is chaired by Alex Notay and commissioners include Lord Best, Andrew Taylor of Vistry Group, Doreen Wright of A2Dominion housing association, Phillippa Prongué of Wates Residential, and Rick de Blaby of Get Living.
Last year, the housing commission published a housing review, chaired by economist Dame Kate Barker, with 18 recommendations to speed up housebuilding.
Earlier this month, London councils proposed a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood retrofit programme to upgrade homes more efficiently and draw in investment from the private sector.