Last month, the NHC hosted a visit to West Yorkshire with officials from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). Emran Mian, Director General for Regeneration at the department, and Josh Goodman, Director of Social Housing, travelled from London to visit a number of our members’ sites across the region. The tour took place over two days. Thank you to NHC Supporter member Ward Hadaway for supporting the visit.

The context of the tour was around the issues and solutions associated with three key priorities for the social housing sector: building safety and quality; new supply; and net zero.

In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, there has been a need to invest in remediation and compliance and with a new Decent Homes Standard emerging, there is significant investment required in building safety and quality.

In terms of supply, the North has a persistent shortfall in the development of new affordable homes. Over 5 years, average annual affordable housing delivery across the North has fallen 45% short of the independently-assessed need.

On net zero, IPPR North analysis for the NHC estimated the cost of retrofitting and decarbonising the heating of the North’s 1.3m social homes at £23bn. The average SAP score for social housing in the North is SAP69 (a very low EPC C) suggesting that even if work was limited to retrofit, works would still be required in over 650,000 homes by 2030.

The tour began on the Thursday with a visit to two Leeds & Yorkshire Housing Association (LYHA) sites, with LYHA’s Mark Pearson (Chief Executive) and Joanna Chambers (Director of Assets and Growth) highlighting potential retrofit through government funding and new supply through Section 106. The first site was St. Mary’s Court in the Chapeltown area of Leeds, a 1970s built estate with three-storey blocks of flats. This site was subject to a bid for Wave 2 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), worked on within the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) consortium, and will hope to receive funding to complete retrofit works such as new heating systems and upgraded fabric.

Approximately 50% of LYHA’s growth is delivered through section 106 opportunities and this was showcased with a visit to Boggart Hill Gardens in Seacroft, to see homes delivered for both social rent and shared ownership. These homes were delivered through a S106 agreement between developer Strata and the council and have had strong demand.

The tour then moved on to two Leeds City Council (LCC) sites, with details provided by Paul Rounding (Capital Programme Manager, Leeds City Council). The first site was The Barncrofts, a number of high-rise housing blocks in the northeast of Leeds. The Barncrofts are one of six District Heating Clusters across the city which will provide renewable heat to be used for heating and hot water purposes. This scheme involves replacing the existing electric storage heating and hot water systems in 26 high rise housing blocks with modern and efficient heating, reducing carbon emissions. As part of the visit, attendees were able to speak to a tenant who has benefited greatly from the retrofit and can now heat the entire flat for longer and for cheaper.

The next LCC site was Roxby Close, another high-rise building in the Lincoln Green area of Leeds – a designated priority area for fuel poverty and unemployment. This scheme was created to address concrete works that need attention, as well as provide energy performance benefits to residents through installation of external wall insulation.

That evening, Ward Hadaway hosted a dinner at their Leeds offices, attended by housing association chief executives and local authority housing leads. The dinner gave our members the opportunity to discuss with DLUHC officials the key priorities for their organisations, tenants, and the sector. The discussion was focused on key issues for the sector such as the rent cap, decarbonisation, new supply and building quality.

On the Friday morning, we were joined by Naz Parkar (Director of Homes and Neighbourhoods, Kirklees Council) who took us to Abbey Road, located in the Ashbrow ward, an area with the highest levels of fuel poverty and carbon emissions within Kirklees. The scheme has raised the profile of retrofit and the needs of communities in the North with visits from the WYCA Metro Mayor Tracy Brabin and Sir Keir Starmer, who was “really impressed” and after speaking with tenants who said energy bills had plummeted. These homes had been retrofitted with various measures including external wall insultation, heat pumps and PV panels.

Naz Parkar then took us to Huddersfield town centre to visit Buxton House, a high-rise block that sits on top of an existing three-story commercial development. Kirklees Council are working on plans for the remodelling of the Buxton House block, which will require tenants to be decanted and will result in the provision of one and two bedroom flats, major fire safety improvements and the introduction of a new, more welcoming, entrance – with an estimated scheme cost of £16 million.

After visiting Kirklees sites we returned to Leeds where we convened at Yorkshire Housing’s new sustainable office, ‘The Place’ for a working lunch with a presentation from Helen Lennon (Chief Executive, Connect) and Nick Atkin (Chief Executive, Yorkshire Housing) who are also Chair and Vice Chair respectively of the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership. Helen and Nick provided an update for Emran Mian on the key priorities facing the regions housing sector and asks from DLUHC to help deal with these. We also had a presentation from Chris Thompson and Jonathan Wilson from Citu, the developers of the Climate Innovation District on which ‘The Place’ lies.

After lunch, Guinness Partnership hosted us at their new Points Cross site, one of the largest developments in Guinness’s 130-year history. Points Cross is located near Leeds Docks and the Royal Armouries Museum in the South Bank Regeneration Area. It has planning approval for 928 high-quality, energy efficient homes. This visit highlighted the positive effect that new supply can have on regenerating areas and the potential for high-quality new supply of affordable homes in the North.

The NHC would like to give a huge thank you to all members involved in this DLUHC visit for helping to relay the key messages for the sector to high-level civil service officials – Leeds & Yorkshire Housing Association; Leeds City Council; Kirklees Council; Yorkshire Housing; Guinness Partnership; West Yorkshire Combined Authority; and also to the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership and Citu for their presentations. We’d also like to thank all those in attendance at the dinner for contributing to a great discussion and give thanks to our supporter member Ward Hadaway for hosting the dinner at their Leeds offices.

In November, the NHC organised a series of three roundtables across the North with regional agents from the Bank of England. The agents provided an update on the UK economic outlook from the perspective of the Bank of England. This included the key economic forecasts published by the Bank, as well as discussing the key judgements that the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee make when making a decision about setting interest rates.

These roundtables were attended by chief executives and senior finance colleagues from NHC members across the sector and provided our members with the opportunity to hear from economic decision makers on issues related to the housing sector.

The first North East session was held on the 15^th November at Ward Hadaway’s Newcastle office with Mauricio Armellini, Bank of England’s agent for the North East. The second session was for Yorkshire and the Humber (Y&H) and was again hosted by NHC supporter member Ward Hadaway at their Leeds office on the 16^th November, with Y&H deputy agent Paul Mount providing the economic outlook. Finally, our supporter member JLL hosted us at their Manchester office on the 22^nd November for the North West session with agent for the North West, Alison Stuart.

Each of the regional agents began the roundtables by presenting the Bank of England’s economic outlook and details of the recent forecasts from the Bank. The agents explained the key judgements made ahead of changing interest rates and how these decisions will aim to impact inflation. Detail was provided on the unemployment rate, house prices, inflation forecasts for growth. Much of the discussions were centred around inflation, with members emphasising the effect rising costs are having on maintenance and development. There were also key conversations around mortgages, with a significant number of mortgage owners coming to the end of their fixed term rate in 2023, meaning a large increase in annual payments once the fixed period is over. The uncertainty and rising costs of buying a home will also cause further strain on the rented sector with more people choosing to remain in private rented or social rented housing. Furthermore, private landlords could also begin to change the tenure of their properties, with rising mortgage costs and imminent increased regulation in the sector, along with rising house prices motivating landlords to turn to owner-occupied tenure.

Linking to inflation, there were various discussions on the rent cap and how this could stifle development, with some suggestion from members of less focus on the decarbonisation agenda due to reduced capacity. Members raised the possibility of government grants for purchasing stock which could help to improve supply, noting that without any funding it will be difficult for providers to increase stock.

The NHC organise Bank of England roundtables yearly and will be looking to arrange a series of events for 2023, if you have any questions regarding these events or wish to participate, please contact Kate Maughan (Director of Member Engagement) Kate.Maughan@northern-consortium.org.uk

We’d like to thank our supporter members Ward Hadaway and JLL for kindly hosting these roundtables in their regional offices.

“The thoughts of everyone at the Northern Housing Consortium are with the family of Awaab Ishak. The NHC and our members were deeply shocked and saddened by his death, and the circumstances in which it occurred.

We are clear. What happened in Awaab’s case was unacceptable. Our sector has fallen badly short of what tenants should expect from us, and what our sector expects of ourselves. Awaab’s death is a wake-up call and housing in the North wants to learn lessons.

For our part, the NHC intends to redouble support for council and housing association members, helping our members share lessons learned to ensure this never happens again. We will also use every opportunity to push for higher minimum standards in all forms of rented housing. We had already called for the new Decent Homes Standard to set out higher expectations in relation to ventilation in homes, and will continue to push for an ambitious and deliverable new Standard.”