Why Warm Homes is such a hot topic

Another week, another property-focused announcement. As temperatures plummeted across the UK, it was timely that the Government released its Warm Homes Plan which set out how they ‘will help people find ways to save money on energy bills and transform ageing building stock into comfortable, low-carbon homes that are fit for the future.’

It is encouraging to see the plan is instead building on elements of earlier schemes that delivered genuine improvements in energy performance. This new focus on technology instead of fabric will be essential for driving Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards compliance at scale ahead of 2030. With greater momentum behind heat pumps and solar technologies which, when combined effectively, can significantly reduce operational carbon, energy use and household costs. Crucially, this shift should extend beyond heating and generation. Modern ventilation systems are vital for creating healthy homes, reducing the risk of damp and mould, and supporting long term building performance. Aligning fabric improvements with low carbon technologies and ventilation upgrades will ensure this funding achieves the greatest and most durable impact.

Overall, the government is demonstrating a continued commitment to improvement and retrofits to drive decarbonisation across the housing sector. Although it’s a whole house approach that would work best, it would cost more and we simply don’t have the central budget available at the moment to do this properly.

The challenge is a delicate and much debated one – how can we upgrade at scale enough homes to make a difference with the funds apportioned. In an ideal world, warm homes would also extend to air quality and noise reduction for sleep benefits and other health focused future proofing but this represents a choice between, say, 100 homes fully future proofed or 1,000 homes that meet criteria in the short term. The government going to treasury is always going to win with the second point over the first.

Other countries have the mix right with pre-emptive and proactive healthy homes strategies but, we must not forget that the UK has some of the oldest and most energy inefficient existing stock in the developed world and by preserving this we are also trying to be sustainable. It presents a very real world challenge as to where we draw the line, for the UK that must be ideally where the pound goes furthest to save most comparatively within a budget?

So we need to make this as effective as possible, and the best way to do this is probably to utilise the public sector frameworks that are already in place with pre-approved, high quality procured suppliers that can mobilise quickly to roll out upgrades.

On the ground we are seeing much more urgent use of funds and repairs/upgrades in response to our stock condition surveys which are becoming much more regular and prioritised since Awaab’s Law, for example.  Across the 100,000+ stock condition surveys we are appointed on for clients, we look at 29 different hazard categories and damp and mould is one of these but typically accounts for around 75% of hazard findings with different levels of severity. This is, of course, inextricably linked to warm homes because of heat loss due to poorly or inappropriately installed insulation. The good news is that our clients are definitely prioritising this – most have dedicated teams that can be (and often are) on site within 24 hours to sort any severe damp and mould issues and have dedicated emergency email accounts set up.

So housing associations and registered providers recognise the problem, but what can they do to not only fix it for now, but also pre-empt the future? There is no real answer right now, we just have to do as much as we can with the funds available and hope that heat and health are not mutually exclusive for much longer.