Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury Progresses Over Summer
Since late July the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury has been meeting, hearing evidence and deliberating together to answer the question ‘How Can Tenants, Landlords, and Others Work Together to Tackle Climate Change in Our Homes and Neighbourhoods’.
Although the Jury’s recommendations, part of a final report detailing their work, will be launched at the Northern Housing Summit in November, NHC members are able to follow the Jury’s progress on the NHC’s dedicated webpage. This includes recorded presentations from invited expert commentators.
Resource Overview
Session 1 – Welcome and Setting the Scene
In Session One the Jury completed the onboarding process with an evening dedicated to getting to know each other and the Shared Future team facilitating the Jury. An overview of the process was given and attendees developed shared principles to ensure the most was made of the Jury.
Tracy Harrison, Chief Executive, Northern Housing Consortium formally opened the Jury with brief remarks as to why the NHC alongside partners First Choice Homes Oldham, Karbon Homes, Salix Homes, Thirteen Group, and Yorkshire Housing, decided to establish the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury.
Session 2 & 3 – An introduction to the science of Climate Change, it’s Causes, and Impacts
Early sessions of the Jury were used to establish a baseline of knowledge around climate change. This began with a presentation by Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, the current Chair and Founding Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London.
Other speakers, including academics and practitioners, spoke to the Jury around the impact of climate change, the various sources of carbon emissions – ranging from energy, industry, agriculture and food, transport, as well as forestry and land use, and the specific contribution housing makes through domestic carbon emissions.
Session 4 & 5 – Housing Retrofit: What does it mean for the Tenant, Landlord, Environment, and Wider Society
From Session 4 the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury, the Jury began to narrow its focus from the wider implications of Climate Change science to housing retrofit and the processes and technology involved.
In addition to offering an overview of the kinds of interventions and renewable heating technologies that may become commonplace, invited commentators were asked to focus on the tangible impacts on tenants lives; visible changes to the home, the size of various types of renewable heating technology and where they are positioned on the property, how long it takes to install and any complications that might arise, and what could be expected in living in a retrofitted home.
In addition to commentators, the Jury also held a series of informal discussions with tenants who have experience of having their home retrofitted to understand the tenant experience first-hand.
Next Steps
The Jury recently met to reflect on their work to date and identify key issues they felt warranted further scrutiny and collate questions they felt remained unanswered. These will form the basis of future sessions as the Jury gradually turn towards developing their recommendations as to how tenants, social housing providers, and others can work together to tackle climate change in our homes and neighbourhoods.
Recordings of invited commentators can be found on the Jury’s dedicated webpage:
http://www.northern-consortium.org.uk/the-social-housing-tenants-climate-jury/jury-sessions/
The final report and recommendations of the Jury will be launched at the NHC’s flagship Northern Housing Summit taking place the 2nd and 4th November. NHC members can confirm their attendance, and non-members can purchase a ticket to the event via MyNHC:
https://www.mynhc.org.uk/event/general?id=Northern_Housing_Summit_2021190140910
