Memorandum submitted by Groundwork UK
SUMMARY
1. Groundwork's role in working with local
communities on environmental issues has afforded us a unique level
of experience in providing information and technical advice on
improving the energy efficiency performance of the UK's existing
housing stock. Programmes and social enterprises such as The
Greenhouse Initiative and The Green Doctor, delivered
in partnership with housing associations and the public sector,
have been successful in delivering not only energy efficiency
improvements and reduced carbon emissions for homeowners, but
also valuable skills, training and employment experience for individuals
through Intermediate Labour Market (ILM) programmes. Such schemes
help those on low incomes, who are most likely to suffer disproportionately
from poorer environmental outcomes, by helping to lift them out
of fuel poverty.
2. We are concerned at the levels of non-decent
and energy inefficient housing within the UK. We call upon the
Government to roll out similar schemes to those models pioneered
and executed by Groundwork, with the aim of improving the environmental
performance of our existing housing stock. We also call for high
environmental standards to be implemented for all new public housing,
the Code for Sustainable Homes to be made mandatory, in addition
to the removal of fiscal disincentives for householders and landlords
to renovate and green their homes through the equalisation of
VAT between new build and renovation activities.
INTRODUCTION
3. Groundwork is a federation of Trusts
in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, each working with their
partners to improve the quality of the local environment, the
lives of local people and the success of local businesses in areas
in need of investment and support. Groundwork's projects aim to
deliver benefits:
— for people—creating opportunities
for people to learn new skills and become more active citizens;
— for places—delivering environmental
improvements that create cleaner, safer and greener neighbourhoods;
— for prosperity—helping businesses
and individuals fulfil their potential.
4. Groundwork's vision is of a society made
up of sustainable communities which are vibrant, healthy and safe,
which respect the local and global environment and where individuals
and enterprise prosper. Our trusts deliver a number of innovative
initiatives in partnership with housing bodies, local authorities
and developers, in order to provide information to residents and
offer them practical advice on how to make their homes more energy
efficient. Our unique, established position within local communities
across the UK has offered us a wealth of experience in this field
and makes us ideally placed to offer evidence with regard to the
best means by which the resource efficiency of existing homes
can be increased. It also enables us to offer evidence on the
extent to which current measures have been successful and could
be improved.
FACTUAL INFORMATION
The significance of existing housing compared
to new build and the different levels of performance each display
5. The Government has placed much emphasis
on new housing, as demonstrated in its recently published green
paper entitled Homes for the future: more affordable, more
sustainable. We welcome its intention to make all new homes
carbon neutral by 2016.
6. Whilst Groundwork recognises the need
for a stock of new, sustainable homes, we believe that the bigger
challenge is in dealing with our existing stock, much of which
is old, energy inefficient and often in need of repair. As has
been widely reported, the majority of the housing stock that will
be in existence in 2050 has already been built.
7. Groundwork cites the DCLG English House
Condition Survey[193],
which demonstrates that in 2005, 5,987,000 homes in England were
classed as "non-decent" (equating to 27.5% of the entire
English housing stock). We are also concerned by the fact that
over half of the 680,000 empty homes in England have been unoccupied
for 6 months or more[194].
We recognise that 27% of total UK carbon emissions come from domestic
buildings and that all English housing only had an average SAP
rating of 48.1 in 2005[195]
—the Energy Saving Trust recommends that housing management
organisations should target an SAP rating of at least 70. All
of the above suggests that future demand for housing within the
UK can only be met sustainably if a major programme of renewal
is facilitated, which addresses the quality and energy efficiency
of our current housing stock.
The provision of information for households and
prospective house buyers, including energy performance certificates
8. Groundwork believes that the sharing
of information regarding the efficiency of homes with residents
and prospective buyers is a vital first step in creating awareness
about the impact that our housing sector currently has on the
environment. It can also play a major role in highlighting the
potential financial benefits of implementing measures to improve
energy efficiency measures in homes.
9. Improving the energy performance of homes—particularly
in the social rented sector—is a growing area of expertise
within Groundwork; indeed, we believe that our skills in this
field have considerable potential for wider use following the
introduction of Home Information Packs. We have found that a community-based
approach, whereby Groundwork, in conjunction with Domestic Energy
Assessors, provides advice on energy efficiency measures to households,
with all proceeds reinvested in local charitable activity on climate
change, is a model with significant social benefits. Such an approach
could also be utilised in the delivery of Energy Performance Certificate
assessments. The following case study demonstrates a key programme
that Groundwork has delivered with local partners:
Case Study: The Green Doctor
With funding from the Neighbourhood Renewal
Fund, Groundwork Leicester & Leicestershire developed the
Green Doctor project as an innovative way of tackling fuel poverty
in deprived wards by offering free visits to low income households
aimed at helping people improve energy efficiency and save money.
The project's wider aims included helping to
create decent, more liveable homes, improving health, reducing
social exclusion and promoting active citizenship. Over three
years, the Green Doctors conducted energy use audits of the properties
they visited using the National Home Energy Rating assessment,
and provided tailored advice to householders about their home
energy use and environmental measures in the home.
The project's success is the result of an integrated
approach focusing on educational and behavioural aspects rather
than technology alone. Householders targeted by fuel poverty projects
are difficult to reach, and persistent attempts to eradicate fuel
poverty have had relatively low impacts. The Green Doctors overcame
this problem by investing the time to talk to people in their
own homes and addressing their individual needs. This enabled
them to "trouble shoot" specific problems such as a
lack of understanding about how to control heating systems, or
fitting low energy light bulbs for elderly residents who might
not be able to do this themselves.
The Green Doctor also served as a referral point
for other agencies and services available to low income households,
both energy and non-energy related.
The achievements of the Green Doctor project
suggest that if replicated in other cities across the UK and expanded
to cover wider groups of households, it could form a valuable
and effective method of reaching both national and local targets
for fuel poverty and climate change. Between 2003-6 almost 800
home visits were made, with savings to householders fuel bills
reaching a total of nearly £10,000 per year. This is equal
to a saving of up to £60,000 over the lifetime of the project.
It has been calculated that if the Green Doctor visited every
home in Leicester, it could achieve an annual reduction in residential
CO2 emissions of one fifth of the city of Leicester's
climate change policy target. If it were to be rolled out across
the whole of the UK, there would be a 13% reduction in household
CO2 emissions.
Government efforts to reduce carbon emissions
from existing housing stock whether in private or public ownership
and other related programmes including Decent Homes
10. Groundwork acknowledges that the Government
is working to improve the quality of homes through their decent
home standard programme and we welcome the improvements that have
been made to public and social sector housing as a result. We
feel, however, that more could be done to encourage sustainable
homes, particularly those under housing association and local
authority ownership through an increase in support, advice and
financial assistance.
11. We believe that the Code for Sustainable
Homes should be made mandatory for all new build. We concur with
the Government's suggestion that because all new homes already
reach a high level of performance on the Energy Performance Certificate
(EPC) scale, even big improvements on top of current Building
Regulations do not register significantly. We agree that, as the
energy element of the Code is based on percentage improvements
over Building Regulations, significant improvements are clearly
visible.
12. We welcomed the measures announced in
the 2007 budget to support householders in becoming more energy
efficient, such as the increased investment in phase one of the
Low Carbon Buildings Programme for households and the measures
to encourage the implementation of microgeneration equipment in
homes. Groundwork urges the Government to capitalise on this by
encouraging and supporting the development of community projects
and social enterprises to deliver energy saving and micro-generation
projects on a wider scale—utilising measures which are relatively
low tech, low cost and easy to install, but which provide major
benefits. We are also disappointed that recent budgets have missed
the opportunity to equalise VAT between renovation and new build;
this disparity currently acts as a disincentive for those who
own and manage housing to make existing homes more attractive
and energy efficient. Concerted effort must be made by the Government
to encourage energy efficiency improvements in residential buildings
across the public, social and private housing sectors.
The technologies available to reduce emissions
and the Government's role in facilitating relevant further technological
development
13. A number of technical solutions are
implemented by Groundwork experts during a Green doctor consultation,
which could potentially be utilised in all UK homes. Typical measures
include:
— low energy lightbulbs (CFLs);
— hot water tank jackets;
— heat recovery fans (where respiratory
illnesses such as asthma are identified);
— waste reduction and conservation
measures, including composters, water savers and bird boxes.
14. In addition to the above, Groundwork
Bridgend & Neath Port Talbot has developed a project to stimulate
the uptake of Natural Fibre (flax) Insulation and improve energy
efficiency in social housing and community developments. Natural
Fibre Insulation offers the potential to achieve energy and CO2
savings by using a sustainable and renewable natural insulation
product.
15. Creating homes which minimise the impact
on the environment requires education, training and knowledge
throughout the construction industry about sustainable development
and about new technologies which can help to minimise the impact
of homes on the environment. Groundwork is pioneering the delivery
of a sustainable development qualification which could provide
a model for helping to improve skills and knowledge both in housing
associations, local authorities and in the construction sector.
The costs associated with reducing carbon emissions
from existing housing, who should meet those costs and particularly,
in respect of low-income households, interaction between carbon
emission reductions and the Government's ambitions to reduce poverty
16. Through our work with housing associations
and local authorities to help get empty homes back into use and
to refurbish existing stock, we have found that, with the appropriate
use of resources, such projects can also act as employment training
programmes. These help improve health and wellbeing, increase
skill levels in the community and create local employment opportunities,
helping to create truly sustainable communities and economies.
As such, funds allocated to setting up and maintaining of projects
primarily to improve energy efficiency have been shown to provide
further, positive, more wide reaching outcomes for local communities,
as the case studies overleaf demonstrate:
Case study: The Greenhouse Initiative
Groundwork Creswell has created "the Greenhouse
initiative", which is supported by the Energy Saving Trust's
innovation programme, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, the Learning
and Skills Council and the European Social Fund. The project brings
empty properties back into use and at the same time makes them
sustainable buildings. This not only restores vacant property
but also ensures that the houses use a wide range of energy saving
devices and renewable energy measures, thus reducing fuel costs
and cutting carbon emissions. The project is delivered by Groundwork
Creswell's trading arm—Crestra Ltd, working in partnership
with housing associations in the coalfield areas of Nottinghamshire,
Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. The improvements, which include
insulation, solar hot water and a rain harvesting system, far
exceed current building regulations. They also tackle fuel poverty
by lowering heating bills.
The initiative not only ensures more sustainable
homes, it also provides work for local people. The work to re-design
and rebuild properties is carried out by the long term unemployed,
providing them with the skills and experience to re-enter the
workplace.
Case Study: Safe and Warm
Groundwork Creswell's "Safe and Warm"
programme has helped over 2,000 households in need by installing
insulation and energy saving measures, and provided long term
unemployed individuals with the opportunity to gain new skills
in the field of construction. Work has involved loft insulation,
cavity wall insulation, pipe lagging and tank jackets, draught
proofing and the installation of energy saving measures such as
dusk-while-dawn lights.
17. Groundwork is concerned by the extent
to which the lowest income households within the UK suffer disproportionately
poorer environmental outcomes. A report commissioned by the Department
for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) in 2004
examined the evidence for environmental inequalities and injustice
in the UK[196].
The report identified that environmental injustice is a real and
substantive problem, which affects many of the most deprived communities
and socially excluded groups. It maintains that both poor local
environmental quality and unequal access to environmental goods
affect quality of life, and that in some cases deprived communities
are not only disproportionately exposed to environmental risk,
but also disproportionately vulnerable to its effects.
18. Groundwork believes that fuel poverty
is a byproduct of energy inefficient homes and low incomes. We
recognise this a significant driver of the need for support to
be given to the poorest sections of society in improving the environmental
performance of their homes.
19. Groundwork will shortly publish a policy
document, entitled Fair and green: Tackling environmental inequalities
and delivering neighbourhood renewal, which examines recent
research and policy developments in this area and explores the
next steps for Government and the contribution Groundwork can
make in reducing environmental inequalities for UK communities.
One of its recommendations is for an improvement in the energy
efficiency of existing housing, as well as those of new buildings,
with a focus on helping deprived communities and low income households
first. As the aforementioned case studies show, localised Groundwork
initiatives have been successful in helping residents to improve
the energy performance of their homes and tackle fuel poverty,
particularly in areas of renewal.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
ACTION
Groundwork recognises the measures that the
Government have announced and are undertaking to improve the energy
efficiency of the UK's housing stock and to tackle fuel poverty.
We do, however, take this opportunity to make the following recommendations:
20. The Government should engage with partners
in the public, private and voluntary sectors to roll out similar,
community based schemes and social enterprises to those operated
locally by Groundwork, such as The Green Doctor, in order
to deliver energy saving and micro-generation projects on a wider
scale. Not only will this improve the environmental performance
of our homes, but will also constitute an effective method of
tacking fuel poverty, a means of providing skills and a route
back into work for unemployed individuals in communities. It will
also assist in satisfying the demand for skilled energy assessors,
as facilitated by the recent partial introduction of EPCs for
homeowners wishing to sell their properties. Measures to improve
the energy efficiency of homes are relatively low tech, low cost
and easy to install, but provide major benefits.
21. We call upon the Government to recognise
that the model of community based schemes executed by Groundwork
are the most effective means of offering support to householders
with the lowest incomes in making their homes more energy efficient.
Our research shows that individuals on low incomes and who are,
as a result, more likely to suffer from fuel poverty, are also
those more likely to endure the worst environmental conditions
in their day-to-day lives. Action to renew and improve the energy
performance of the lowest income households first will provide
environmental and financial benefits for those communities and
individuals who need it most.
22. We urge the Government to equalise VAT
on renovation and new buildings, to provide a fair incentive for
homeowners to renew and improve the environmental performance
of their homes. We feel that there is much more to be done in
improving the quality, energy efficiency and attractiveness of
the UK's existing housing stock. Action on VAT would help the
Government meet its targets for sustainable housing.
23. We ask the Government to ensure that
the Code for Sustainable Homes becomes mandatory for all new house
build.
24. We support the calls of the Royal Commission
on Environmental Pollution (RCEP), which recommends that new demanding
timetables are put in place for improving the energy efficiency
of our building stock, and that existing homes should be improved
to the EcoHomes Excellent standard by 2030.
193 DCLG: English House Condition Survey. [WWW] http://www.communities.gov.uk/pub/408/DH2aDwellingsfailingoneachdecenthomescriterionbysector_id1165408.xls Back
194
DCLG (2007) Our policy on empty homes [WWW] http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1153425 Back
195
DCLG (2005) English House Condition Survey 2005: Headline Report
[WWW] http://www.communities.gov.uk/pub/983/EnglishHouseConditionSurveyHeadlineReport2005_id1508983.doc Back
196
Sustainable Development Research Network for DEFRA (2004) `Environment
and Social Justice: Rapid Research and Evidence Review'. Back
| 
