Blogs

Last month our strategic partner the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) hosted its annual summit, a jam-packed two-day online event that brought together 160 people from councils, housing associations and providers from across the north of England.

The key theme was climate change and the need to upgrade our homes to meet net zero targets.

‘Constructing the Gold Standard’ is the result of many discussions with clients, suppliers, advisers and procurement specialists like LHC. Commissioned by the Cabinet Office, the report’s 24 recommendations build upon earlier guidance in the Construction Playbook. LHC was pleased to be involved in this review process and welcomes the recommendations outlined in the report.

The importance of the right learning environment has been brought into sharp focus over the last two years, as students switched to a mix of home-based learning and hybrid teaching due to Covid-19 lockdowns and periods of self-isolation.

The pandemic has also highlighted the effect of the built environment on our mental and physical health, whether in our homes, schools, offices or community buildings.

The Government’s much-anticipated Heat and Buildings Strategy promised a further £800 million to spend on retrofitting social homes from 2022/23 through to 2024/25, building on the £160 million already allocated for the current financial year. A further £950 million will be available for the next phase of the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) and an additional £200 million for the Local Authority Delivery Phase (LAD3).

Search for ‘intelligent client’ and Google delivers more than 136 million results. The term has gained prominence over the last decade, fueled by aspirations to transform the delivery of major UK public sector construction projects by focusing on value for money, whole-life asset management and sustainable procurement.

Last month the Government announced the next stage of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, making £160 million available for social housing providers to upgrade existing housing stock and to improve energy performance by 31 January 2023.

And in the run up to COP26, we’re still eagerly awaiting the long-promised Heat and Buildings Strategy, building on the Government’s 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, to give clearer guidance on exactly how housing providers, homeowners and builders should reduce carbon emissions from homes.

The Government’s pledge to ‘level up’ the country in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with the drive towards net zero, has led to a swathe of public funding programmes and investment schemes to help local councils improve their building stock.

Eighteen months of disruption to schooling has shone a spotlight on the inequalities of education opportunities and the importance of creating the right environment for learning.

With the many challenges and pressures facing the housing market today – and in particular those faced by the social housing sector – it’s time for providers to start exploring new solutions.

Take up of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is slower for the social sector than amongst private companies, but mounting and almost overwhelming issues demand that all possible avenues are investigated.

Look, I get it. There are lots of reasons not to start engaging with modern methods of construction.

Too risky. Too expensive. Too many unknowns. Too much else to do. Especially if you’re a smaller housing provider. And all the while, boards are starting to apply the MMC pressure.

But what if I told you there was an easy way to overcome all these concerns, with a positive impact on the local job market and economy? Would you consider it?

Four million of the North’s homes need to be upgraded to reach an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) level C. That’s a huge target in itself, but when you factor in the Government's Clean Growth Strategy deadline of 2035 for this to happen, that means 270,000 homes need to be retrofitted every year until then.