As autumn approaches, many households are concerned about how to afford heating their homes this winter, and everyone is waiting to see the details of how the new prime minister will deal with the energy crisis. While it’s important to get money into the pockets of those who need it as soon as possible, we also need to upgrade our well-ventilated homes so that we’re better equipped to deal with energy crises in the future. Improving our homes brings a range of benefits, including reducing energy bills and dependence on foreign energy imports, improving our health, creating jobs and community wealth.
Through the Big Home upgrade, we have been calling on the national government to start large-scale UK housing upgradeBut even without this, local authorities can take meaningful action to support those most affected by high energy bills.Our new research has estimate Local authorities can install basic energy efficiency measures such as attic and cavity wall insulation in a relatively energy inefficient community of 670 households for as little as £880 per household. This will save an average of £220 a year per family. All told, this means the local authority is spending £573,000 on the community as a whole, saving the community £144,000 a year.
This means that local authorities should be able to launch retrofit programmes without waiting for the central government. If it were expanded to all of our chosen local authorities’ communities – not just the most fuel-starved ones – it would cost significantly more, to £54m. This should be supported by central government funding as well as multiple other sources of funding.
If local authorities want to bring down the skyrocketing cost of living, they need to understand which measures will have the biggest impact in the short term. Councils should consider purchase and installation costs, speed, skills required, carbon reduction potential, and short-term cost savings potential of different measures. Our analysis shows that attic insulation, cavity wall insulation, wind protection, radiator thermostats, smart heating controls and energy audits are the best measures to achieve this.
Local authorities cannot upgrade all the houses in their area at once. Given this, they should prioritize a few neighborhoods using an approach that takes into account local needs (how many households will struggle to pay their bills) and deliverability (how quickly and easily upgrades can be installed). There are many ways to calculate it, but the best way is to use fuel poverty data and housing energy efficiency ratings as a proxy for demand, as well as housing tenure and type to inform deliverability.
As part of this, local authorities should prioritise communities with high proportions of social housing and owner-occupied housing. These properties are more vulnerable to current best practices than the Private Rental Sector (PRS). Landlords need more convincing to install measures, and existing regulations such as Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) are often ignored. But private rental housing cannot be ignored either. Councils should introduce mandatory landlord licensing to fund communication with landlords and ultimately better enforce MEES. Liverpool City Council is a case in point, with 52,000 properties approved in five years, while more than 1,900 properties identified for home improvement.
“This means that local authorities should be able to launch retrofit programmes without waiting for the central government. “
Importantly, councils start with a few individual streets, estates or communities before scaling up. Community-based approaches are more effective in engaging residents, especially when outreaching and mobilizing through existing communities and networks. This approach also saves money because councils can buy materials and installation services in bulk, meaning they can apply what they learn from one community before expanding to other communities.
However, when councils want to go beyond a small number of communities, they can scale up by partnering with nearby councils to form a central organisation (such as a retrofit delivery agency) to facilitate financing and delivery. The tool will provide grants and low-interest loans to residents who meet certain criteria. Funding will be limited to targeted areas and adapted to suit residents living in social housing, private rental or home ownership. It will then be rolled out to other communities using grants and loans. But local authorities will need new sources of funding, especially central government grants, to expand from one community to entire local authorities and beyond. Loans to households can also play an important role, but we recommend that households maintain 50% energy savings to protect them from losses when energy prices drop.
One of the most binding restrictions on parliament is limited staffing. To overcome this, the council should form a retrofit working group comprising local and regional government representatives, social landlords, building authorities, universities, energy suppliers, industry experts and investors. The working group should be formed in partnership with a group of councils, each with dedicated resources and personnel to support it.
Upgrading our ventilated, chilly homes is Arguably one of the toughest infrastructure challenges The UK has never seen it. our national government Take responsibility and spend £11.7bn on big residential upgrades in the rest of this parliament – we shouldn’t just rely on already stretched local authorities. However, local authorities remain trusted agencies to provide meaningful protection this winter and beyond. Many households will struggle to cover their bills this winter, despite the new prime minister’s freeze on energy prices. Now is the time for the city council to step in. Upgrading our leaky and dilapidated housing is the best way to make sure everyone stays warm through winter and the coming winter.
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