A successful journey towards net zero
PROJECT BRIEF
The Challenge
In 2022, three leading housing associations in central England created a ground breaking consortium with the aim of pooling their resources to secure funding for ambitious plans to retrofit and decarbonise their collective housing stock, numbering more than 20,000 homes.
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The three Registered Providers (RPs) were joined by a local authority: as a first step, these four organisations identified some 1,500 homes which required work to bring them up to EPC rating of C – an important initial target in their progress towards a carbon zero future.
The challenge for this consortium and Just Housing Group (JHG) was to develop a long term funding strategy to finance their aims. However, it quickly became clear that this would have to happen through a series of connected steps.
The first was a pilot insulation project using Energy Company Obligation 3 (ECO) funding and the the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF).
Within this initial stages would be several important, interlinking projects, aimed at pulling together information, including from stock surveys, to draw up a map of what was required across the housing stock. All members of the consortium were clear that residents needed to be at the very heart of this process, helping to shape it’s policy formation.
And this was all of course before the implementation phase would begin, a step that itself would need to be carefully planned …
Key Service Provisions
Project management
Bid writing
Asset Management
Analytics
Strategy
Communications
Key Facts
The four organisations making up the client have more than 30,000 homes in their portfolio.
Around 1,500 homes were identified as needing a retrofit and decarbonisation programme to achieve an EPC rating of C.
An estimated budget of £38 million would be required to achieve the project’s aims.
OUR METHODS
Putting together a winning bid
The bid process was complex with each of the above tasks feeding into the proposals.
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The approach placed working with residents at its heart, with a dual aim of explaining to tenants how the measures would improve energy efficiency, especially as this would also be good for their bills and pockets. This plan spawned a vital public facing element to the project, with JHG contributing to ongoing communications to stakeholders and residents about the progress and ambition of the programme.
The engagement strategy needed to go in hand in hand with a fact based assessment of the housing stock in question, as well as the market place for appropriate contractors and possible pathways to deliver practically the final aims of the programme.
Practically, the process involved:
• Setting up cross organisation working groups with resident representatives.
• Building heat maps of the housing stock and coordinating the targeting of homes for improvement: this included working with each organisation to pool their existing data from more than 700 surveys to ensure there was early targeting of homes needing work (for a list of pilot projects) and to form the bedrock of the funding bid.
• This led to the identification of 1,500 homes that needed a specific programme of works to bring them up to the EPC rating of C.
• Identifying appropriate contractors – and beginning discussions on how they might aide the aims of the project.
• Ensuring compliant procurement processes were followed and working closely with advisors to understand the archetypes and range of measures to lift different properties to EPC C.
• Detailed risk maps and project plans were a key part of the process.
• Communicating with residents and stakeholders: our consultants contributed to establishing a distinctive brand, including the establishment of a web hub, the issuing of paper communications to residents and representing the organisations an important stakeholder events, including regional conferences.
Generating a shared vision
With the SHDF identified as a priority source of funding, JHG worked closely with the consortium partners to build the necessary strategy to ensure a successful bid and, more importantly, one that met the needs of tenants across all of the partners.
Identifying the right funding route
The approach to financing this ambitious programme was focused on the nationally available funding pots which JHG led on identifying and then converting into successful applications.
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This resulted in the project targeting ECO 3 and 4, SHDF Wave 2.1 and the Green Heat Network Fund (looking forward, the consortium will explore all funding opportunities as well assessing other routes to bring their homes to net carbon zero – for example with Retrofit Credits).
The move to pursue SHDF was seen as a catalyst to creating the momentum for progressive improvement across the organisation’s housing stock and a clear demonstration to tenants of how important the partners see the climate change agenda.
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Telling the story of each consortium member while at the same time recognising the ‘lead applicant’ role - settle group - was a challenge. The energy and commitment of the partners was important and JHG utilised that enthusiasm to put together a comprehensive, detailed application for the identified funds.
PROJECT SUCCESSES
A successful bid for £14m of SHDF funding. This was the largest award outside of the metropolitan authorities and G15 providers and their consortia.
Identification of a number of potential pilot projects some of which have been actioned while others are now in the planning stage: this was based on analysis of the stock including the production of a heat map covering homes across the organisations housing portfolios which compared the deprivation indices with energy performance.
The success has given the consortium the confidence to move forward to the next stage of the funding process.
Building a robust governance framework to ensure best practice and effective checks and balances