Agenda item

To receive an annual update on the delivery of the Greener Housing Strategy.

The Service Manager – Housing Maintenance Programmes and Servicing presented the report and detailed the work being carried out within each of the Strategic Priorities associated with the Greener Housing Strategy detailed below:

·         Strategic Priority 1: Reduce Carbon Emissions in the Council Housing Stock

·         Strategic Priority 2: Council Housing and New Build Standards

·         Strategic Priority 3: Private Sector Housing Decarbonisation

·         Strategic Priority 4: Housing Service Operations

The Chairman of the Panel acknowledged the challenges of greener housing and the importance of new homes being built to the Future Homes Standard.  He was pleased to see investment in staff, including, the Level 5 diploma in retrofit coordination and risk management which would help to drive up the quality and standards of the housing stock. 

It was questioned how staff could be retained, recognising that investment was being made in them with additional training, might encourage them to seek opportunities elsewhere.  The Service Manager – Housing Maintenance Programmes and Servicing reported that through the new Corporate Plan and Transformation Programme it was planned to make the District Council a great place to work.  The work within the housing team was innovative and there was a degree of excitement around this.  It was acknowledged there was a risk of staff seeking alternative employment, however this was not a reason to not provide training for staff.

There was a discussion about Council owned properties and the cost of retrofit works not being economically viable.  It was reported that all properties would be assessed, and modelling software would be used to help to review the works and costs associated with retrofitting.  Options would then be considered with recommendations for approval.

A member of the Panel questioned why the Home User Grant wave 2, had attracted the submission of 103 applications and the reasons why only 21 properties had been completed the works.  It was reported that this grant was specifically for off gas private properties and therefore had limited eligibility. A new wave of funding would be available in March 2025 and it was anticipated that the eligibility criteria would be wider, enabling more people to be successful in receiving funding.

It was acknowledged that there were 2,228 council owned properties in need of retrofit works and questioned whether the target to bring properties to an EPC rating of a C by 2030 would be achievable.  It was noted that the majority of these were D rated and many of these could have small incremental improvements which could bring them closer to an EPC C rating.  277 properties had been improved through this method without any additional work or cost.

A question was asked about new developments being approved in the District providing which would provide affordable housing, but were not being built to the Future Homes Standard.  These would require retrofit works, which was not cost effective.  It was acknowledged that this was not part of building regulations at the current time.  The Council might purchase some of these properties as part of the affordable housing programme and therefore retrofit works would be required.   This was acknowledged to be an issue, however all new homes had good energy efficiency.  It was a Council priority to purchase more affordable homes to support those in need in the District.  Any necessary retrofitting would be carried out in the most cost-effective way.  The Service Manager – Housing Strategy also reported there was a choice to be made regarding the purchase of these properties.  Any housing provider who took on these properties would need to carry out the retrofitting works.  The Future Homes Standard was hoped to be implemented nationally in 2025, and it would then be mandatory to build homes to this standard.  It was also acknowledged that some developers had been installing alternative heating methods and the more they did this, the more experienced they would become and in time this would bring the cost down.

RESOLVED:

That the progress made from September 2023-31 August 2024 to deliver the priorities and actions in the Greener Housing Strategy 2022-32 be noted.