BEIS has finally published the updated Fuel Poverty Strategy called “Sustainable Warmth: Protecting Vulnerable Households in England.”

The new strategy makes 21 commitments to “ensure everyone can afford the energy required to keep their lights and heating on.”

It sets out how it will meet the UK’s legal target to “improve as many fuel poor homes as is reasonably practicable to a minimum energy efficiency rating of EPC Band C, by the end of 2030.”

The first question to ask is if the strategy commits to the resources needed to address fuel poverty.

Key announcements:

• Extending the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) to £1bn per annum to install heating, insulation, or other energy saving measures in the homes of people who are living on a low-income, are vulnerable or fuel poor.
• Investing £150 million in the Home Upgrade Grant from 2022 to support low-income households off the gas network.
• The continuation of the Green Home Grant (GHG), and the Local Authority Delivery (LAD) and evaluation of the scheme.
• Extending the Warm Home Discount to provide rebates and wider support to reduce energy bills for low-income pensioners and other low-income households with high energy bills.
• Higher regulatory standards in the private rented sector driving over ‘£10 billion of investment in energy efficiency.’

Definition of fuel poverty

The strategy alters the definition of fuel poverty moving away from the Low Income High Costs (LIHC) definition of fuel poverty. That is a relative indicator which has not allowed Government to reduce the overall number of households in fuel poverty despite action taken. The new indicator will be Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE). It will capture households that have a residual income below the poverty line (after accounting for fuel costs) and live in a home that has an energy efficiency rating below Band C. Consequently, the numbers recorded as in fuel poverty will fall as the energy efficiency rating of the homes of low-income households reaches Band C.

Benefits which are not means tested are excluded as residual income as the income of those receiving the benefits is artificially inflated and therefore not accurately portraying their likely income versus expenditure, including whether they are likely to be vulnerable to living in a cold home.

The strategy recognises that there are important questions regarding households that fall outside of the definition. For example, a low-income household living in an A-C rated home who would not be classed as fuel poor under the LILEE definition and would therefore not qualify for energy efficiency improvements.

There is a strong case for continuing to monitor whether low income and vulnerable households who live in reasonably efficient homes continue to receive support to heat their homes.

Fuel Poverty Targets

The fuel poverty target remains the same – to ensure that as many fuel poor homes as is reasonably practicable achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of Band C, by 2030. Milestones also remain unchanged, “as many fuel poor homes as is reasonably practicable to Band E by 2020 and as many fuel poor homes as is reasonably practicable to Band D by 2025.”

The strategy is less clear about actions to be taken if fuel poverty schemes fail to achieve these milestones.

Strategic Principles

The updated strategy confirms four guiding principles for tackling fuel poverty:

The ‘Worst First’ principle has been retained, prioritising upgrades to the least efficient homes.

The cost-effectiveness principle is retained seeking the best return from investment but emphasises that landlords will need to make ‘significant up-front investments’ in housing stock.

The vulnerability principle updates the view of vulnerability explicitly referring to older people, younger people, those with certain cold related health conditions and those with conditions that require more time to be spent at home.

A new sustainability principle ensures fuel poverty policies are aligned with the need to reach net zero, making it a central part of work to achieve a just energy transition.

Key commitments to deliver change.

• Improved energy efficiency standards through the Future Homes Standard, and review of the Decent Homes Standard.
• MHCLG is currently reviewing the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). BEIS and MHCLG will work together to ensure the HHSRS review takes account of evidence on cold homes and aligns with wider Government aims on energy efficiency and fuel poverty.
• Warm Home Discount – consultation on reforms, to improve the fuel poverty targeting of the scheme and expand automatic bill rebates will be held later in 2021.
• Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards – increased regulation of the private rented sector will play an important role in meeting the fuel poverty target and in making a major contribution towards wider energy efficiency and decarbonisation objectives.
• New guidance for landlords of HMOs will be published to clarify when an EPC is required and when the PRS Regulations 2015 apply to HMOs.
• Energy Company Obligation – the next iteration of ECO (2022-26) will increase in value from £640m to £1bn per year. It will be designed to align with other domestic energy efficiency policies in social housing and the private rented sector.
• The Strategy commits to monitoring the delivery of energy efficiency schemes, such as ECO and parts of the Green Homes Grant Voucher and LAD schemes, to identify where delivery is at lower-than expected levels. BEIS is currently evaluating the targeting and impact of the ECO scheme. The results of these evaluations will be publicly available when complete.
• Home Upgrade Grant – a commitment has been made to introduce HUG as a successor to the Green Homes Grant, with £150m in 2021/22. This is expected to rise significantly in the following years, in line with previous statements and the Conservative Manifesto commitment of £2.5bn.
• Social Housing – grant recipients for the initial £50 million Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund demonstrators will be announced in February 2021. At SR20, a further £60 million was committed for the SHDF. We continue to call for the remainder of the £3.8bn earmarked for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to be brought forward to assist economic recovery in Northern regions.
• Local Partnerships – In March 2020 BEIS allocated each of the 5 Local Energy Hubs £75,000 for fuel poverty work in financial year 2020/2021. The Hubs are using this resource to employ an energy officer to support local authorities to develop their ECO Flexible Eligibility scheme and to develop bids for Local Area Delivery programmes of the Green Homes Grant.
• Hard to Treat Homes – £7.7 million has been awarded to three organisations through the Whole House Retrofit Challenge Fund to explore innovative approaches to reducing the cost of whole house retrofit.

Consultations will take place early next financial year on both the future of ECO and the Warm Home Discount. In the short-term, BEIS are holding workshops on the development of HUG and will release the consultation response and draft regulations to next financial year’s 1-year extension to WHD in the coming weeks.

Targeting of fuel poor households

Meeting the statutory fuel poverty target in a cost-effective way requires support to be targeted at those living in fuel poverty. There is no single list of which households are fuel poor. The Committee on Fuel Poverty has called for better use of data to find the households most in need and eliminate the need for bureaucratic application processes. In our report, No Home Left Behind, we called for a local approach to the ECO scheme to allow better use of data, guided by local authorities and allowing for the blending of ECO with grant funding.

Consultation will be held on a reformed ECO Flexible Eligibility scheme, designed to allow local authorities to identify low income households, under any future successor ECO schemes.

Reaction to the Strategy

The updated strategy includes some welcome and enhanced resources to meet the challenge of ending fuel poverty.

We are pleased to see that the Government’s intention to focus on more intensive improvements to the worst homes will be backed up by an Energy Company Obligation that increases to £1bn a year from April 2022, and that stronger efforts will be made to identify households in need.

The opportunities and challenges that have emerged around the Green Homes Grant programme show just how much we need a long-term strategic approach to meeting the long-term goals. This strategy states that it does not set out the final path to meeting the 2030 target and is written as a ‘living document’ to be adapted. It is critical however that a  clear long-term plan should deliver the wider economic recovery and levelling up needed in some regions, including developing the jobs and skills needed to deliver energy efficiency works, as set out by IPPR North in Northern Powerhomes.

It is welcome that the strategy considers the interaction between different energy schemes and that they can be used alongside each other for the installation of measures at the same property.

A commitment to raise regulatory standards on private landlords is welcome but this must go hand in hand with increased capacity for local authorities to enforce the standards as we called for in our 2021 Budget Submission.

Building back greener will require embedding the principles set out in the strategy, linking energy efficiency directly to health, wellbeing, and job creation, and commitment to a Home Improvement Plan for the North.

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Earlier this month the Housing Ombudsman Service published a report focusing on complaints about heating and hot water, identifying unnecessary delays in resolving issues together with landlords’ management of contractors as particular issues of concern. The report highlights the serious impact these complaints can have on residents, especially when dealing with vulnerable households.

The report, Spotlight on complaints about heating, hot water and energy in social housing, is based on more than 200 cases investigated over an 18-month period from April 2019. It includes complaints about heat networks, gas servicing and energy efficiency to support decarbonisation. The highest number of complaints investigated concerned general heating and hot water issues, but there was a disproportionately high number of maladministration findings in the cases which involved heat networks – or district heating – and complaint handling.

The report makes several recommendations for improved practice including:

• putting things ‘right first time’, particularly where contractors are involved through effective management of contracts
• providing clear information for residents at the start of the tenancy or lease on properties with heat networks, and again if the arrangements change
• planning gas safety inspections well ahead of the due date to allow for appointments to be made at a convenient time for residents and avoid missing renewal dates.

Overall, the report has 40 recommendations of best practice and we hope landlords will use the learning to help improve their services and complaint handling.

Read the full report.

LHC is currently in the pre-planning stage of their New Build Housing Construction (H2) framework that will be procured on behalf of SPA, CPC and LHC.

It will deliver a range of traditional housing as well as low, medium and high-rise construction, sheltered, student and keyworker accommodation, care homes, and mixed use sites, development agreements and land purchases. Associated civil engineering and infrastructure works required for new build housing and net zero buildings will also be covered under the framework.

Planned housing lots

• New build housing – low rise up to 11m to top floor height
• High rise developments with floor heights above 11m
• Construction of care homes
• Refurbishment, Conversions, Extensions and Adaptions
• Groundworks and preparation for new build sites
• Major infrastructure for new build housing sites

Gary Crawley, Director of CPC, said:

“The New Build Housing Construction (H2) framework for the North of England is to provide the right solution for a growing demand for collaborative procurement to meet the ongoing housing challenges and support levelling up standards across the UK, Both the procurement process and delivery of building projects will contribute positively to social value, shaping places and enhancing the quality of life for our local communities.”

CPC will be hosting a pre-tender engagement webinar to discuss the H2 framework in detail. CPC are giving you the chance to help shape the framework to how you want it.

Register here >

To register interest in the H2 framework and receive further updates, visit eTendering portal Proactis.

On Tuesday the Housing Minister, Chris Pincher MP, attended the latest meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Housing in the North to learn about the work of the Group, give an update on Government priorities, and underline his support for APPG’s as cross-party, Parliament-wide forums of important debate.

To summarise the recent and future work of the APPG, Chair Ian Mearns MP had arranged for Group Secretariat the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) to begin the meeting with a scene setting presentation.

NHC Chief Executive Tracy Harrison began by introducing the APPG’s recent publication No Home Left Behind: An Inquiry into Property Standards in the North’s Private Rented Sector.  Tracy explained that the sizeable evidence submitted by NHC members had highlighted a series of challenges, and potential solutions, to ensure the PRS was a positive choice and experience for all tenants.

Alongside the Minister, attendees heard how the PRS regulatory framework had become a comprehensive but complicated mixture of statute and case law that hinders enforcement and allows poor conditions to flourish, that the ability to identify landlords and poorly conditioned properties was essential to professionalising the sector, that Local Authorities were being held back in their ability to effectively use enforcement tools by severe budget constraints, and a long-term commitment to regeneration was required to allow place-based partnerships to improve hard-to-address, poor-quality accommodation.

It was then explained that the proposed focus of the APPG in 2021 would be to identify and argue for a strong role for housing in the Government’s ambition to ‘level up’ the regions and the mandated goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Tracy outlined some of the ways housing policy could be adapted to work better for the North: improving capacity in councils, advancing a level playing field on accessing housing infrastructure funds, with it being noted that whilst the Government had committed to reviewing the so-called 80/20 formula, details were yet to emerge; and a refreshed vision for Homes England, incorporating ‘levelling up’ and Net Zero as stated strategic objectives.

Tracy finished by highlighting new research, supported by the NHC, from IPPR North outlining the economic and environmental stimulus brought about by investing the North’s older, colder homes. Sarah Longlands, IPPR North’s Director, was also at the meeting to give a full briefing to the APPG but Tracy used time with the Minister to highlight two aspects of the research. That a roadmap to decarbonise existing homes should begin with social housing, using the sectors historic capacity to deliver large-scale improvement works as a catalyst to further cross-tenure decarbonisation. And secondly, that investment in housing should come alongside a localised focus on skills development to fully realise the potential 77,000 jobs in home retrofit identified by the report.

The Housing Minister Chris Pincher MP used his time to highlight a number of Government announcements made in recent months. Firstly, concerning the Planning White Paper, the Minister noted the scale of feedback received particularly around the future of Section106. On the proposal for a new infrastructure levy, the Minister indicated that this may well be locally set to acknowledge different geographies and housing markets. However, the Planning White Paper was the beginning of the conversation, not the end, so it was certainly too early to make any firm commitment.

The Minister reiterated the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) as a key area of focus, with the next iteration running to 2026. He stated that this next AHP will be geared more to affordable and socially rented homes, with 32,000 new social homes set to be built, more than double the figure built during the current AHP programme.

The PRS was acknowledged as another area of focus, with the Minister stating he is keen to approach renters reform from a stable economic terrain and is committed to abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault evictions’. The Minister noted that the Government wants to make the private renting system far less complicated for all who navigate it, particularly renters themselves.

Discussing ‘levelling up’, he reiterated the Government’s commitment, though acknowledged that the last 10 months had distracted from this. The recent announcement of the £4bn Levelling Up Fund was more indicative of their desire.

The Minister finished by underlining that regeneration was an area of focus he was seeking to build into planning reforms and he would welcome ideas and feedback on this subject. Before the pandemic we had began to see the ‘Amazon effect’ transform retail. There was a need now to ‘build back’ in our town and city centres and planning reform should facilitate effective masterplans. It may be that ‘regeneration zones’ are identified alongside the Planning White Paper’s proposals of growth, renewal, and protected zones – this was all part of the conversation the Minister was keen to have.

The Minister stayed on for a QnA session with Parliamentarians. Discussion centred on Permitted Development Rights and space standards, the future of Neighbourhood Planning and citizen engagement within the planning process, accessible housing, and embedding housing and improving existing homes into ‘levelling up’ and Net Zero. The Minister thanked the APPG and noted he would be happy to return to the Group in the future.

Social Housing membership organisation the Northern Housing Consortium have welcomed Paul Fiddaman as the new Chair of their member-led board.

Paul is currently the Chief Executive Officer with Karbon Homes, having previously held Chief Executive roles with Isos Housing and Cestria Community Housing, and brings over two decades experience of the housing sector.

He replaces Tom Miskell, who stepped down as Chair at Northern Housing Consortium’s last AGM in December. Paul has been a member of the NHC board since 2017. The NHC is a membership body representing the views of over 96% of housing providers across the North of England. The NHC uses the insightful views and experiences of members to influence policy, striving to remain a strong Northern voice on behalf of their membership.

Speaking about his appointment, Paul Fiddaman said:

“I’m delighted to be taking over as Chair at the NHC at a very exciting time for both the organisation and sector.”

“This last year has shown the commitment, ambition and professionalism of the NHC team, especially when it comes to supporting members and being the voice of the North’s social housing sector. I am really excited about how we can continue to connect members and policy makers together to make the North an even better place to live for everyone.”

Tracy Harrison, NHC Chief Executive adds:

“Paul has become Chair at a time when we are really driving positive change forward in our organisation and we welcome him to his new role.

“The events of 2020 forced a lot of change upon our work and we have adapted well to meet the needs of our stakeholders. In 2021 we plan to build upon this, delivering even greater value for our members and taking an even bigger role in making housing policy work for the North.”

“On behalf of our other board members, our staff and all of our members I would like to thank Tom Miskell for his support as Chair. His influence on the organisation has put us in a great position for the years ahead.”

The announcement of Paul taking over as chair coincides with the launch of a new look for the NHC, created to articulate the strong, modern and professional nature of the organisation.

The visual look has been developed for ‘digital first’ communication, partially in response to the changes to the world of work over the last 12 months with more reports and documents being view on screen, and events online, than ever before.

About the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC)

The NHC is a membership body representing the views of over 96% of housing providers across the North of England. Our events and procurement services extend beyond the North, to approximately 150 affiliate members. We use the insightful views and experiences of our members to influence policy and we strive to remain a strong Northern voice on behalf of our membership.