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BACKGROUND

Broadacres is a housing provider which owns and manages more than 6,000 homes and has stock in North Yorkshire and the surrounding areas.

The housing provider now fits air source heat pumps (ASHP) as standard in every new home it builds. As well as new homes, Broadacres has been running an ASHP retrofit programme for a number of years.

This forms part of the housing provider’s Sustainability Strategy, which outlines a roadmap that will lead to all its homes and operations having net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

ACTION

Over the last 18 months Broadacres has installed 150 ASHPs in existing homes.

In total there are now ASHPs fitted in 735 of Broadacres’ homes, representing more than 10% of its entire stock. The ASHPs are being installed in homes in areas without access to mains gas, replacing oil and LPG central heating and storage heater systems. Residents were supported through the process by Broadacres’ team of dedicated Customer Liaison Officers, who work especially closely with vulnerable residents to provide practical support and reassurance as work is carried out. Where necessary, loft insulation is installed at the same time, to improve the energy efficiency of the home at the same time as upgrading the heating.

Alongside this, Broadacres is currently working on a pilot project which has involved taking four unoccupied properties in Northallerton, Stokesley and Myton-on-Swale, near York, and carrying out a deep retrofit programme which will make the homes net zero ready.

The retrofit homes have undergone structural and layout alterations, had new insulated concrete floors installed, external wall insulation (EWI) and stringent air tightness measures and tests completed. Solar PV panels have been installed on them, along with ASHPs and mechanical ventilation heat recovery systems. All homes are now Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band A, making them some of the most efficient of Broadacres’ entire stock.

The housing association’s ambition was to learn lessons from the project and roll these out across the rest of its stock. For this reason, most work was carried out by in-house operatives and by existing contractors local to the area and overseen by its in-house Retrofit Coordinator. The housing association took this approach, rather than commissioning a main contractor, to maximise learning from the project and they worked closely with contractors and in-house operatives to help improve learning about retrofit. Broadacres’ in-house trades learned lots of new skills mainly around air tightness techniques, installing the Winframer system and the correct sequencing of measures. They guided their existing contractors to install ASHPs, waste water heat recovery and whole house ventilation systems.

IMPACT

EPC data demonstrates that Broadacres’ retrofit project has lowered customers’ bills and modelled EPC data shows that the current SHDF Wave 2.1 project will lower bills in the future.

Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hollinrake said:

“Broadacres has an exciting future ahead and their commitment to building energy efficient homes is commendable. It was great to see the impact this has already had on Mrs Smith in terms of lowering her fuel bills while also lowering emissions and shows why the Government’s target of 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028 is so important.”

LESSONS LEARNT

Embed learning into business-as-usual. Delivering the retrofit project has enabled Broadacres to capture some important lessons learnt. They have created a 10-point action plan to embed the learning from the project into business-as-usual activity. This includes identifying which energy efficiency works can be carried out at different intervention points, investing in colleagues’ knowledge, skills and understanding, enhancing specifications for all investment works and sharing learning with others.

Bring colleagues along on the retrofit journey. The housing association is re-writing the specification it uses for works carried out when homes are empty, before new tenants move in. By carrying out before and after air tightness testing on a selection of empty homes, as they did in the retrofit project, they can demonstrate the effectiveness of air tightness measures. Going forward Broadacres will require a minimum of 300mm of loft insulation, key draft proofing measures and low energy light bulbs to be installed at all homes before they are relet. This work is being done collaboratively with the teams involved to bring colleagues along on the retrofit journey.

Invest in training to improve knowledge around retrofit. Broadacres is investing in its colleagues’ knowledge, skills and understanding by rolling out Level 2 and 3 retrofit training to 13 colleagues within the property services team. This, combined with Carbon Literacy training, which is available for all staff, will help to engage and motivate colleagues to undertake high quality energy efficiency improvements.

Share learning across the sector. Broadacres are committed to sharing learning with other housing providers and stakeholders and have run a series of open days to showcase this retrofit project.

FUTURE PLANS

In reality, completing the deep retrofit work on these four homes is just the start of the story and the work is just beginning. The key innovation of this project is not what it has achieved to date, but how it will continue to influence retrofit work at Broadacres over the coming decades. The project team has developed close relationships with the Property Services and Development teams, so the learning from this project is embedded into business-as-usual activities throughout the organisation.

Once people move into the pilot project homes Broadacres intends to work closely with them to capture feedback about what it is like to live in a retrofitted home. They will be monitoring the efficiency of the properties, including recording the internal temperature, air quality and humidity.

Ultimately, this pilot project could pave the way for all of Broadacres properties to undergo similar work to deliver the carbon neutral homes of the future.

Broadacres has been allocated £2.4 million under wave 2.1 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. This funding will enable them to retrofit 400 homes over the next few years, installing solar photovoltaic panels, ASHPs, underfloor insulation and loft insulation. This work forms a key part of the housing association’s ambition to achieve minimum SAP 69 by 2028, as all homes receiving measures will be EPC Band C or B following the work.

Broadacres now fits air source heat pumps as standard in every new home it builds across its operating area of North Yorkshire and surrounding areas. For example, at Sowerby, near Thirsk, residents have begun to move into a 97-home development which will be heated by ASHP. This also marks the first time Broadacres has used renewable energy on a scheme where a gas connection is available.