We made our core Net Zero Carbon commitment back in 2018 – to bring ALL our existing homes up to EPC C by 2025 – five years ahead of the Government’s target. We’re on track to achieve this, with 90% of our stock at EPC C today.
Net Zero Carbon best practice and innovation, alongside proactive capital planning has meant that six years on, our results demonstrate retrofit delivery at scale for our homes, inherited through LSVT in 2002, and much of which date back to the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
Our net zero story shows clearly what has been achieved through SHDF Wave 1 and Wave 2 funding for our customers.
Tony Cahill, our Executive Director of Property, said: “As part of Wave 1 alone, we invested a combined total of £6million on moving 630 of our homes to EPC C. The impact of this is significant – for our people and the planet.
“It’s created an estimated saving of £284,000 per year in energy costs, an average of £437 per home, at a time when our customers need it most due to the cost of living crisis. And its retrofit measures have removed 194 Tonnes of CO2 every year.”
But the wider story includes collaborative working from a consortium of eight Registered Providers formed in 2021 including Livv, Prima Group, One Vision Housing, Magenta Living, Regenda Homes, Plus Dane Housing, Onward Homes and Halton Housing.
A consortium working in conjunction with, and coordinated by, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) that has delivered measurable results and meaningful impact for social housing stock across our city region and for the North.
The consortium secured £11million of grant funding for SHDF Wave 1 with co-investment of a further £11million, Wave 2 secured a further £31million of grant funding.
With a wider lens, the impact of the Wave 1 programme across the region was significant, with 1,203 homes moved from EPC Bands D-G to EPC B and C.
The benefits also include the creation of jobs, with the LCRCA programme creating 91 skilled green jobs across just 6 of the consortium members to date.
The following have been created either directly or indirectly within the programme’s supply chain in the delivery of retrofit works under the SHDF:
- 18 x retrofit assessment roles
- 17 x retrofit coordination roles
- 17 x project management roles
- 29 project administration roles
- 4 x low carbon trade roles
- 6 x other support roles
The Wave 1 programme, supported by the commitment to Wave 2 (now in progress) gave housing providers and their supply chain the confidence to invest in developing a long-term delivery plan and to create new employment opportunities.
The Northern Housing Consortium’s (NHC) latest research highlights that decarbonising the North’s homes should create around “77,000 good green jobs”.
Its Warm Homes, Green Jobs, Meeting the Net Zero Challenge in the North, says one of the biggest barriers to decarbonising homes at the scale needed to reach net zero by 2050 is the lack of a skilled workforce and limited supply chain capacity.
The report states that with the right Government investment, social housing providers can help develop a supply chain and workforce that will make it possible to deliver a step change in other tenures and bring down costs.
The NHC report calls for:
- Long-term consistent funding to decarbonise social housing to give contractors and housing providers certainty to invest.
- Further devolution of funding so Mayoral Combined Authorities can take a lead delivering energy efficiency improvements in their area.
- Growth of a sustainable and inclusive workforce through local partnerships.
- Sustainable solutions for the hardest to decarbonise homes. This includes funding for regeneration, including building new zero-carbon homes.
At Livv Housing Group we back the NHC’s key rally calls, especially longevity of funding strategy. The mobilisation of a decarbonisation programme takes time, money and effort to start up. RPs have many competing priorities, so we need to have long-term visibility of the funding streams – 10 years and beyond ideally.
“We too believe the social housing sector can take the lead in delivering warmer, greener homes across the North and unlock a new generation of green jobs to realise NZC for the 2050 target. Because the NZC target stop clock doesn’t stop there and the klaxon is sounding for Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3 applications.