NHC Chief Executive response to Autumn statement

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NHC Chief Executive Tracy Harrison responding to the Autumn Statement:

The NHC welcomes the Chancellor’s decision to uprate benefits in-line with rising prices – this will help people through the crisis.  However, we are very concerned that he intends to freeze local housing allowance in cash terms. Our Northern Housing Monitor shows that the proportion of private rentals in the North advertised at rents above the relevant LHA has grown from three-quarters of ads in 2017 to more than four out of five in 2019, to a position where almost nine out of 10 properties advertised for rent are too expensive for someone reliant on LHA. This position is unsustainable and will drive homelessness.

We have always argued that the long-term solution to the energy crisis is energy efficiency. We therefore welcome the further £6bn investment in energy efficiency from 2025; and we look forward to working with BEIS to ensure that homes across the North benefit from this. It will be important that more detail comes forward soon so that the supply chain has visibility of long-term demand.

The government’s 7% rent cap for social housing provides certainty, and will help councils and housing associations to balance affordability for tenants as well as continuing their important work to tackle fuel poverty through green home upgrades and provide important services to tenants.

Rebalancing Northern Places

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The Levelling Up White Paper set out twelve missions in support of key levelling up objectives. These outline the medium-term ambition for the Government. For the housing sector the role that housing plays in contributing positively to Levelling Up has been recognised, not just in new supply linked to job creation and growth, but also as a key part of regeneration and targeted levels of decency in rented housing.

Beyond the missions around home ownership, and decent standards, the housing sector connects to important economic and social impacts for its residents, communities. These impacts are multi-dimensional, measurable and can contribute to the wider Levelling Up ambitions.

A ‘left-behind’ area, in need of ‘levelling up’, is characterised by broad economic underperformance, which manifests itself in low pay and employment, leading to lower living standards in that area. The health of the local residents may also be relatively poor.  These characteristics are frequently the places that social housing providers are working in with over half of the most deprived 10% of local authorities located in the North.

Social housing providers are already providing services which rebalance communities in these key areas of inequity.  We have mapped member organisation activity against the levelling-up missions ensuring our member contributions are recognised, particularly in the area of employment and health.

Our report sets out detail on each levelling up mission explaining current activity in support of levelling up. Case studies offer an important insight into the activities of housing providers and demonstrate the variety of activities and the added value this provides for local communities.

Our aim is to build an understanding of the contribution social housing providers can make to the rebalancing agenda and making sure that the great work of our members is recognised.

We also discussed the relevance of the levelling up missions at our Levelling Up Conference: Housing at the Heart of a Rebalanced Country which took place on 14th July in Leeds where we brought together key stakeholders to define the debate on how best to achieve place-based regeneration.

Housing associations work across communities, including the most deprived neighbourhoods.  As organisations with a strong social purpose they do this because it is the right thing to do as well as making solid business sense to do it. As our report and the case studies show, the housing sector is already delivering positive work. By progressing this work across the Levelling Up missions social housing providers can maximise their impact in places.

Read the full policy brief here.

A new report demands urgent action on homes hit hardest by fuel poverty during the worsening cost of living crisis.

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The North has a home energy efficiency mountain to climb, with poorly insulated homes costing tenants at least £680 more this year than they would if properly insulated. That’s the finding from The Northern Housing Consortium’s (NHC) annual Northern Housing Monitor report, which reveals that 3.8m homes across the North fall beneath the key energy efficiency standard of EPC C.

The NHC is calling on the Government to use next week’s Autumn Statement to boost investment in existing homes. The organisation is urging Jeremy Hunt to commit the balance of energy efficiency investment pledged in the Conservative Manifesto, investing a further £4bn to create a long-term programme of investment for homes across the North of England that are hit hardest by fuel poverty. This investment amounts to less than 5% of the estimated cost of the Energy Price Guarantee this year[1].

The NHC report indicates a continued need to prioritise retrofitting existing homes with effective insulation measures so that they use less energy: controlling bills for the long term and contributing to the UK’s energy security.

According to the findings of the report, achieving energy efficiency now presents a critical Northern housing challenge, with the NHC report revealing:

  • One in six Northern households were in fuel poverty before the latest energy price rises, with the region home to a third of England’s fuel-poor households.
  • Reaching Band C by 2035 requires retrofitting one home every 2 minutes.
  • Going into this winter the average Band D household will pay £680 more for energy, compared to an EPC Band C home, this cost rises to £1,249 for Band E and a staggering £1,765 for Band F.

Fuel poverty is an extensive problem across the North, especially in rural areas. The government’s statutory fuel poverty target for England is to ensure that as many fuel-poor households as reasonably practicable achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of Band C by 2030, with a D target by 2025.

The statistic of one in six  Northern households estimated to be in fuel poverty in 2020 is likely to have increased sharply in the past 12 months, with the Committee for Climate Change suggesting that an additional 2 to 4 million households may be pushed into fuel poverty.

The NHC report found a high level of variation in the rates of fuel poverty between regions. By government calculations, the percentage of households in the North experiencing fuel poverty in each local authority ranges between 10% to 20%. This is higher than most local authorities in southern England.

One of the highest regional rates is in Yorkshire and the Humber (17.5 per cent), a region with a median income under £23,500. It also has the lowest share of overall homes reaching fuel energy efficiency bands A-C, supporting the suggestion that fuel poverty may have increased across the region.

Even before recent price rises, all three regions of Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West and the North East, had an incidence of fuel poverty above the England average, with Yorkshire and the Humber having the second highest proportion of fuel poverty after the West Midlands.

The NHC’s chief executive, Tracy Harrison, said: “It’s very clear that energy efficiency is now as much a social challenge as a climate challenge. Whilst the introduction of the Energy Price Guarantee offers some relief and short-term support, it is also expensive for Government and will now be reduced in April. A long-term solution is required, not a temporary sticking plaster  – ramping up existing programmes will build on the North’s emerging retrofit success stories, cutting energy use and waste for good.”

Bringing homes in the North up to Band C energy efficiency standard requires retrofitting at least 270,000 homes annually to 2035. This is over 700 homes a day or one home every 2 minutes. According to the NHC, achieving the target of decarbonising the North’s homes by 2035 could generate 77,000 direct jobs in the North and 111,000 indirect jobs across the UK.

Tracy Harrison added: “The only way to get to the root of the problem is to tackle it head-on, and our recommendation is that at next week’s Autumn Statement, the Government should accelerate the remaining £4.3bn of manifesto energy efficiency commitments to create a long-term programme of investment in the North’s homes. The cost of the energy price guarantee this year is estimated at £100bn. So, if firming up a commitment of £4.3bn towards maximising energy efficiency in homes that need it the most represents less than 5% of that, it has to make sound economic and environmental sense to do so?”

[1] Source: IFS: https://ifs.org.uk/articles/response-energy-price-guarantee

To download a copy of the NHC’s Northern Housing Monitor click here.

For more information, contact Nathan Lane on 07447 921654 or nathan@campfirepr.com