It’s stated that roughly 20% of UK greenhouse emissions come from housing. More than 200 local authorities have declared a climate emergency and tackling it means that action is urgently needed to retrofit better insulation and sustainable heating systems into the UK’s housing stock as a key part of the solution.
The first milestone that the government set out is to bring all homes up to a minimum EPC Band C by 2030. As over 70% of housing currently doesn’t meet this standard, including most of the four million social homes.
By 2050 all homes are expected to be net carbon zero. What does this mean for social housing providers in particular? What actions need to be planned right now and what are the main issues and challenges that lie ahead? The national retrofit project is huge, unquantified and urgent.