Train People, Generate Ideas, Reduce Carbon Emissions

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As the world grapples with the urgent need to address climate change, it is crucial for all sectors to play their part in transitioning to a sustainable future. Social housing providers have a unique opportunity to lead the way in reducing carbon emissions while also addressing the issues associated with social and economic inequalities in Britain. The Carbon Literacy Toolkit for Social Housing presents an invaluable resource to empower and educate stakeholders, enabling them to take meaningful action towards a greener, more sustainable future. As global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, there is an imperative for organisations and communities everywhere to take control of the emissions over which they have influence. Those of us without the political clout of public office or presence at international conferences might feel powerless to do anything about climate change. But we can choose a different path, we just need to know how.

The Carbon Literacy Project has been supporting workplaces in creating the time and space to talk about climate change and its solutions for over 10 years. Training materials are designed to frame climate change conversations through lenses that are relevant to the organisation and the local area; a collection of 17 housing associations across Greater Manchester realised that their materials might look rather similar. They jointly funded the development of a Carbon Literacy training programme that coordinated their training efforts and low-carbon actions. This was the precursor to the Carbon Literacy Toolkit for Social Housing.

The Social Housing Toolkit is a comprehensive and user-friendly resource designed to enhance the understanding of climate change, its impacts, and the measures required to mitigate its effects within the context of social housing. Developed with and for social housing providers, the Toolkit provides a systematic approach to building Carbon Literacy among staff and tenants, as well as other key stakeholders.

The Toolkit was shortlisted for the Unlock Net Zero Awards 2023. It was fantastic to see that so many of the winners this year are organisations that train their staff in Carbon Literacy to aid their low-carbon ambitions. One of the strengths of the Social Housing Toolkit is its ability to empower staff and tenants within the social housing sector. By equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to tackle climate change, the Toolkit fosters a sense of responsibility and encourages collective action. This, in turn, can lead to a range of benefits, including improved engagement, enhanced reputation, and reduced operational costs.

The Toolkit provides a wealth of educational resources, including training materials and case studies. Its interactive delivery style is designed to raise awareness and deepen understanding through learning with and from everyone in the room. By increasing Carbon Literacy, social housing providers can empower their employees to make more low-carbon choices in their roles within the organization and in their own lives too. Such knowledge can inspire innovative solutions and foster a culture of sustainability within the workplace. Whether at the beginning of your sustainability transition, or trying to put robust policy into action, the Carbon Literacy Toolkit is an impactful means to realise excellent results.

The adoption of sustainable practices is not only beneficial for the environment but carries with it a wealth of other benefits. The Social Housing Toolkit assists social housing providers in identifying energy-saving opportunities and implementing measures to reduce energy consumption and associated costs. By promoting energy efficiency and encouraging the use of renewable energy sources, providers can significantly reduce their carbon footprint while simultaneously lowering operational expenses. Better efficiency and lower bills allow householders to live comfortable, healthy lives in their homes.

In an era defined by the urgent need for climate action, social housing providers (and their supply chains) have an incredible opportunity to drive change and create a sustainable future. The Carbon Literacy Toolkit for Social Housing equips staff, tenants, and stakeholders with the knowledge and tools necessary to make informed decisions and take effective action towards a greener and more sustainable social housing sector that provides safe, decent, affordable homes now and into the future. Those that embrace this powerful resource can strive for a brighter, carbon-conscious world.

If you would like to use Carbon Literacy training to enhance your transition to net-zero carbon emissions, contact us via email at housing@carbonliteracy.com.

Test and learn phase begins for Heartwarming Homes toolkit

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Eighteen social housing providers are testing a communications toolkit which will support them to engage with residents about having Net Zero work completed in their homes.

The Heartwarming Homes toolkit will help providers change the way they engage and communicate with residents about energy efficiency improvements.  It will be a useful guide for both communications and sustainability and asset management teams.

The toolkit uses behaviour change principles and includes research and practical advice about how to make energy efficiency an easy choice for residents.

There is advice  about which channels to use to engage with residents successfully. Face-to-face communication and resident ambassadors have both been identified as key to building trust, as well as educating colleagues so everyone a resident has contact with is on-message.

There is a step-by-step communication process for energy efficiency projects, and a range of resources you can download and share with residents including  FAQs, sample letters and case study videos. The ‘using the right language’ section will help you communicate in a clear and accessible way.

There is also a section which looks at how you can communicate with the wider customer group about energy efficiency, including those who are not yet due to have work done on their home.

Kathy Thomas, the project’s Communications Project Manager (Net Zero) said:

“One of the biggest takeaways for me from our tenant advisory group and communications advisory group has been the need to create trust between tenants and landlords. Both groups have played a big part in making sure what we produce is relevant to tenants and the housing sector.

“Social landlords are leading the way with making the UK’s homes greener – and they’re facing similar challenges. Heartwarming Homes is about offering a better resident experience and helping your sustainability programme run smoothly. To make this happen, communication and engagement need to be an integral part of net zero project plans.”

Heartwarming Homes has been developed in partnership with Northern Housing Consortium, Placeshapers and Tpas. It takes forward recommendations from the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury and Residents’ Voices in the Net Zero journey.

 

Heartwarming Homes is about the sector working together – it’s time to collaborate not duplicate. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more or share your learning.

Thousands of Homes Face Safety Challenges

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Over 800,000 Northern homes have serious hazards at a cost of £3.15 billion to put right.

On average one in ten (9.9 %) of the occupied homes in England have a Category 1 Hazard.

Research for the new Northern Housing Monitor, a ‘state of the region’ report for housing in the North, finds that, over 823,000 Northern homes are modelled as having a Category 1 Hazard.

In the North West, almost one in every seven homes has a hazard, one in nine in Yorkshire & the Humber and over one in ten in the North East.

Private renting is consistently the tenure most likely to be modelled for a hazard:

  • Between one in five and one in six privately rented homes have a Category 1 Hazard
  • Social housing has the overall best quality tenure at around a third better than the all-tenure average. Owner occupied homes are also much less likely to have a serious problem than in the private rented sector.

The most common Category 1 hazards found in homes are excess cold, damp and mould growth, fire, falls on stairs, and electrical hazards.

The government and the local authorities have been taking measures to improve the quality and safety of housing and to reduce the number of Category 1 hazards in homes.

 

What would it cost to put this right and what would the wider benefits be?

  • Using estimates of the cost to resolve Category 1 hazards published by the independent BRE Trust in July 2023  pro rata, the costs would be about £3.15 billion in the North.
  • Whilst a huge bill, which would take about nine years before it was paid back, this investment would be good business for the tax-payer. These faults cost the NHS £350 million pro rata a year in the North. Nationally, the wider benefits reach about £130 billion over 30 years (ten times the NHS benefits) and would include reducing CO2 emissions by 97 million tonnes.
  • Pro rata these benefits for the North would be in the region of £44 billion and 34 million tonnes of emissions reduced.

 

Hotspots are largely rural

          Rural areas in the North of England have proportions of the most dangerous hazards across all dwellings that are approximately double the England average.

  • Seven of the top ten most challenged local authority areas in England are located in these rural areas.

 

Terraces dominate the house types with hazards in the North

 Of the 823,000 homes in the North with hazards, by far the largest type are terraces with a 40.8% share, followed by semi-detached homes. Flats were a distant third at 16.3%.

  • Hazards appear to broadly follow a pattern of income distribution assumed by bungalows and detached homes occupying more land (and thereby costing more) with terraces and flats being the least expensive units to occupy on the whole.
  • Terraces are substantially more likely to be assessed as hazardous in the North, with North West terraces being proportionately over half more likely to have a hazard compared with the English average.
  • The North East does not follow the England distribution, with its flats being more than twice as likely to be modelled with a hazard than flats overall in England. Conversely, the very low value for terraces in the region probably reflects the post-war replacement of obsolete or destroyed terraces within public stock.

The research above is extracted from the new edition of the Northern Housing Monitor for 2023 – the full document will be launched in autumn 2023 – keep a look out in Member News for launch dates.

NOTES

WHAT ARE HAZARDS IN THE HOME?

The housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS) is a risk-based evaluation tool to help local authorities identify and protect against potential risks and hazards to health and safety from any deficiencies identified in dwellings.  It was introduced under the Housing Act 2004.

There are 29 categories of housing hazard with a category 1 hazard the most serious hazard which could pose the most serious risk of harm. Some examples of category 1 hazards are excess cold, damp and mould growth, falls on stairs and other trip hazards.

A review of the HHSRS was commissioned by DLUHC to clarify and modernise the HHSRS assessment and consider whether some hazard profiles could be removed or combined and to improve the guidance given to landlords and tenants. The review is nearing completion and the Government will publish a summary of the findings and set out next steps.

DATA MODELLING

This data is extracted from the English Housing Survey local authority level stock modelling undertaken by BRE Group’s Local Government Data & Insights team, on behalf of DLUHC.

English Housing Survey Local Authority Stock Condition Modelling of HHSRS Category 1 Hazards has modelled the most recent pre-Covid data down to local authority level. Known characteristics associated with unsafe dwellings have been used to estimate the number of homes in an area that would likely fail a HHSRS assessment in the North. This is experimental data released in June 2023.

TABLES

 

Cells are shaded horizontally, red being the highest.

Table 3: Number and proportion of homes modelled to have Category 1 Hazards

Cells are shaded horizontally, red being the highest

MAPS

Note: Tenure maps are shaded to the same scale. This means that where the top or bottom of a range does not appear on a map the relevant shades are omitted from the map key.

Map 1 The proportion of private rented homes modelled with Category 1 Hazards

 

Map 2 The proportion of social rented homes modelled with Category 1 Hazards

 

Map 3 The proportion of owner occupied homes modelled with Category 1 Hazards

 

NHC Unlocking Success Bursary Scheme awards 13 tenants with £500 bursary

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The Unlocking Success Bursary Scheme, funded through the Northern Housing Consortium Charitable Trust, awards bursaries of £500 to help tenants develop learning and skills to support future employment. Since its launch in 2019, we have awarded 88 bursaries to successful applicants to help them with various forms of learning and development including IT courses, books for A-Levels, a British Sign Language course and travel costs for getting to college.

The 2023 edition of the scheme launched in April and we had 33 brilliant applicants from 14 of our members. Of these 33 applications, 13 were successful and were awarded £500 to help support their future employment. The bursaries will go towards a range of different training and skills development, including towards the training costs and purchasing a laptop to complete online training in helping young people and young offenders in the community. Another successful applicant will use the bursary to fund a First Response Emergency Care Level 3 course, with an expectation of eventually joining the Ambulance Service.

 

The successful applicants will use the bursary for a variety of forms of education, such as HGV driver training and training in food safety and hygiene to work in a school kitchen. One bursary winner will use the grant for a laptop to help support their whole family with English courses, along with starting a Level 1 Plumbing course.

 

Simone, a tenant who was awarded the £500 bursary for a First Response Emergency Care (FREC) course said:

“Thank you so much! For all the support with helping me apply for this bursary, as well as the FREC which has given me such a good start to my new path !!!

I have applied for the C1 on my license now, and I can’t wait to start my driver training, which wouldn’t have been possible any time soon without this bursary! I am so happy and grateful to have people supporting and believing in me, and to be chosen for it…

I am definitely on the right path now and come September I will either be working and training with North West Ambulance Service as an EMT or training to be a paramedic at Warrington Vale!!”

 

Another tenant awarded the £500 bursary was Peter, who is putting the money towards a Security Industry Authority (SIA) license, Peter said:

“I would like to start off by saying thank you so much for accepting my application and for being successful this had made a huge impact on my mental health already as I know that once the payment comes through for the training things will start improving for me in terms of financial stability, more work, better mental health and I can eventually start reducing my rent arrears.

More work and being full time also means I will be able to earn a wage and not rely on universal credits and the uncertainty of shifts I was able to claim without my SIA license. I would have never of been able to save up for this training myself and everything alongside it i.e. travel expenses etc.”

 

To read more of the success stories from past successful bursary applications, see here.

Congratulations to this year’s 13 successful applicants! Look out for updates on the next round of the bursary in 2024, further information on the scheme is available on our website.

 

Pride in Place Project Concludes with Co-Creation Workshop

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Over the last few months the Northern Housing Consortium and our members Blackpool Coastal Homes, Karbon Homes, Livv Housing Group, MSV Housing Group, and Yorkshire Housing have been working with Thinks Insight and Strategy, the leading research agency founded by Deborah Mattinson, currently the Labour Party’s Director of Strategy, on Pride in Place: Housing at the Heart of a Rebalanced Country.

Making the most of the sense of community and belonging prevalent across the North, as well as empowering residents themselves, will play a key role in supporting all areas of the country to thrive. As part of the NHC’s work, we’re committed to underlining the importance of our members to any national agenda looking to reduce local and regional inequalities. Pride in Place is central to that work, and has brought together residents from both the social and private rented sectors together to understand what pride means to them, what makes a place enjoyable to live in, and the role we all need to play whether the community directly, NHC members, or national government.

The fieldwork for the project concluded last Wednesday at a Co-Creation Workshop hosted by Yorkshire Housing. Ten residents were joined by stakeholders representing organisations with a part to play in making great places including the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities. Each were tasked with working together to identify and co-create potential solutions and initiatives that could improve pride in an area. Through the workshop, we wanted to learn what residents prioritised for areas like theirs across the North and how we could all contribute.

Findings from this workshop will inform the development of recommendations, both to the sector in how we engage communities on our placemaking work, but also to Government, showcasing the full breadth of how NHC members contribute to regeneration in the broadest sense, tackling inequalities, and overall, improving community belonging. You’ll soon be seeing the NHC at Party Conferences in the Autumn and November’s Northern Housing Summit will see the launch of our final report.

Sector consultation summer round up

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The sector’s views are currently being sought on a number of key areas through consultations and calls for evidence running over the summer and into the autumn.

The NHC plans to respond to several of these on:

  1. Consultation on new draft consumer standards by the Regulator of Social Housing.
    • The NHC is also running two events for members specifically on this consultation:
      • A ‘Meet the Regulator’ session on 20th September where Angela Holden, Assistant Director of Consumer Regulation at the RSH will discuss the consultation and new consumer standards, with time for a Q&A.
      • Our Regulation network on 25th September will provide an opportunity to discuss the draft standards and consultation facilitated by NHC Head of Business Improvement, Nigel Johnson.
  2. Public Bodies Review of Homes England by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
  3. Inquiry into Shared Ownership and its associated challenges and barriers as a route to home ownership by the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee.
  4. Inquiry into Heating our Homes, focusing on the challenges associated with decarbonising housing stock by the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee.

 

If members would like to share their thoughts with us on any of the above consultations, or if you are submitting a response to any of these directly and are happy to share it with us, please contact: tom.kennedy@northern-consortium.org.uk (for the Consumer Standards Consultation please copy in: karen.brown@northern-consortium.org.uk)

 

The wider list of sector-related consultations and inquiries currently accepting submissions are below:

Name Consulting body Contents and objectives Submission deadline
Consultation on the consumer standards Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) To collect views from across the sector on newly published draft consumer standards, which set out specific expectations and outcomes that all registered providers of social housing are expected to achieve.

The draft Standards are:

·       The Safety and Quality Standard – covering health and safety compliance, stock quality, compliance with the Decent Homes Standard, providing an effective repairs and maintenance service, a providers’ adaptations service and other related areas.

·       The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard – covering tenant engagement, complaints handling, the collection and publication of performance data, demonstrating fairness and respect in how providers treat tenants, meeting diverse needs and other related areas.

·       The Neighbourhood and Community Standard – covering the management of shared spaces, cooperation between providers and other local stakeholders e.g. police, how providers manage reported cases of anti-social behaviour in communities and cases of domestic abuse.

·       The Tenancy Standard – covering allocations and lettings, tenancy sustainment, evictions, tenure and mutual exchange.

It is expected that the final standards will enter force, and providers’ performance against them will be assessed by the RSH, from 01 April 2024.

 6pm – 17th October 2023
Homes England Public Bodies Review Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) To collect views from organisations and individuals with experience working with Homes England and how the agency could perform better, including how it works alongside local tiers of government.

The Review aims to specifically assess whether Homes England is performing in areas of:

·       Efficacy – their ability to deliver an effective service which meets the needs of citizens.

·       Efficiency – their ability to deliver a service in the best way with good use of resources

·       Governance – having in place systems and processes to ensure the organisation is managed responsibly.

·       Accountability – their ability to be open and transparent in decision making and service delivery.

 11:59pm – 14th September 2023
Heating our Homes Energy Security and Net Zero Commons Select Committee To examine issues around the ability of households to heat their homes, with a focus on:

·       Establishing minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) across housing tenures

·       Property insulation and retrofit

·       Heat pumps and other technologies for heating homes as an alternative to gas boilers

·       Workforce and skills requirements for a largescale retrofit programme

·       Affordability issues related to the switch to decarbonised heating

 25th August 2023
Shared Ownership Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Commons Select Committee To examine the challenges associated with shared ownership schemes including barriers to achieving full home ownership, affordability issues such as service charges, maintenance responsibilities and mortgage availability.

Also, to assess whether Shared Ownership offers a genuinely affordable route to home ownership and value for money, or if alternatives such as ‘Rent to Buy’ could offer a better alternative.

 14th September 2023
Disabled people in the housing sector Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Commons Select Committee To assess whether residents with disabilities in England have access to accessible and adaptable housing, whether the planning system currently considers this effectively, the effectiveness of the Disabled Facilities Grant and what more could be done by government to support disabled residents in all housing tenures. 14th September 2023
Developer Contributions APPG for Housing Planning and Royal Town Planning Institute To examine issues around the current system of developer contributions, including Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

In addition, the inquiry hopes to ascertain how the sector views the proposed Infrastructure Levy and how developer contributions could be improved in the future.

 5pm – 5th September 2023