Issue - meetings

Cabinet considered the decarbonisation proposals for the Council’s housing stock. This included looking at the Journey to Net Zero strategy document. This was the strategy and approach that was intended to reduce greenhouse gas emission from the Council’s social housing stock. It supported the government's aims for decarbonisation by achieving net zero by 2050 and linked into the Council’s adopted Net Zero Strategy. This strategy would have a high impact on the tenants as it would reduce fuel consumption, making Council homes warmer and more comfortable using less energy.

The work that would be carried out would be disruptive for tenants, who would also need to learn how to use their homes and new technologies installed differently. This was already the case with the new build programme, where officers needed to ensure they could show tenants how to make the most of the features installed in their home. This document touched on the expectation of the performance of newbuilds but its main focus was on the Council’s current housing stock that was less energy efficient.

The strategy has three objectives, these were to:

• Improve all properties to EPC C by 2030;
• Reduce energy consumption for residents; and
• Offset carbon emissions.

The objectives were underpinned by three principles, which were:

• Tackle the Council’s Worst performing properties first;
• Fabric first, no regrets - this means that the Council would ensure that its homes were well insulated first and that the Council do not install new untested technology that had to be removed again later; and
• Meaningful resident involvement.

It was predicted that the overall cost of decarbonisation would be around £40 million. Therefore Cabinet was exploring different funding opportunities such as the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Energy Company Obligation, Local Authority Delivery Scheme and Home Upgrade Grant. Plans were already in action as there was an opportunity to bid for funding in the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund in Wave 2.1.

The Council had applied for funding for retrofit works to five of the six tower blocks. The proposed works would see all flats in these blocks achieve an EPC rating of C or B. The bid, for around £4 million, would if successful, form part of an ambitious programme of refurbishment, with a total value of around £22 million, including further funding coming from Homes England for the replacement of external wall insulation and contributions from the Council’s approved Housing Capital Programme.

Cabinet proposed to partner with Mears, appointed through a compliant procurement framework, for the delivery of the programme, and Mears had provided significant expertise to support the bid process. The early identification of a delivery partner also added weight to the bid submission and ensured the deliverability of the proposals. Mears were already the Council’s partnering contractor for responsive repairs and had a track record of delivering decarbonisation projects.

If the Council was not successful with the Social Housing Decarbonisation bid, there was still a need to replace the External Wall Insulation, with funding from Homes England, but it would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 875

The meeting resumed at 20:15hrs

The Chair invited Councillor Yates to speak under Council procedure Rule 20.1 Councillor Yates thanked officers for the successful bid of £4.3 million decarbonisation fund that was made by the Housing Team.

Sally O’Sullivan, Tenant & Leaseholder Services Manager, led the discussion and made the following points:

• This was a strategy for how Tenant and Leaseholder Services (TLS) would reduce greenhouse gas emission, to ensure the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Housing stock supported the government's aims for decarbonisation and meeting net zero by 2050. It linked into the Council’s Net Zero strategy. This strategy was especially important because of the way it would affect council tenants, many of whom were in fuel poverty. The adoption of this strategy would lead to the following:

1.  Reduction of fuel consumption for our residents, making their homes warmer and more comfortable using less energy;

2.  The work to be carried out would be highly disruptive and residents would have to learn how to live in a different way or use new technologies;

3.  The new build properties that would come into the social housing stock would already be high performing and council officers would need to ensure they can demonstrate to tenants how this could be achieved.

• The strategy provided information on the expectation of the performance of newbuilds but its main focus was on current stock that was poorly performing;
• Firstly, it examined the data that the council already had and what could be done to add onto this current information about the council properties. There was a need to come up with a plan to improve on the data currently held by the council as such information underpinned the Council’s efforts for prioritising the programme for retrofitting the Current council stock;
• This strategy had three objects and these were to:

1.  Get all properties to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C by 2030;

2.  Reduce energy consumption for residents;

3.  Offset carbon emissions.

• To achieve these objectives, there were three principles to work by and these were:

1.  Tackle the council’s worst performing properties first;

2.  Fabric First, No Regrets - this would mean that the council would ensure that its homes were well insulated first as this had an immediate impact on the residents fuel consumption. Once this was in place would be in a better position to find a clean heat solution that compliments the building. That would mean the council would have no regrets on what would already have been done and not have to redo any previous works;

3.  And to have meaningful resident involvement.

·  It was predicted that it would cost the council £40 Million to achieve the Net Zero target;

·  A further £4 million was required for professional fees;

·  Therefore, the Council was going to try and tap into as much funding as possible. Currently officers were exploring such finding streams as Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), (Energy Company Obligation (ECO4), Local Authority Delivery (LAD) scheme and Home Upgrade Grant (HUG);

·  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 416