Download Recommendations - London Councils

Leaders’ Committee
Homes Retrofit Project
Report by:
Jared Boow
Date:
09 June 2009
Contact Officer:
Jared Boow
Telephone:
020 7934 9951
Summary
Job title:
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Item no: 5
Policy and Project Manager (Environment)
[email protected]
London Councils, London Futures (formerly London Collaborative), the
GLA and the LDA are working together to develop and deliver a panLondon Homes Retrofit Programme to retrofit existing homes. It will be a
comprehensive programme of measures to achieve significant carbon
savings in London’s domestic housing sector through economies of
scale, joining up funding programmes, joint lobbying, and partnership
working. This report outlines progress to date and future plans for the
programme and supports a joint presentation by Isabel Dedring, the
Mayor’s Director of Environment Policy and Cllr Sean Brennan,
Sustainability Portfolio Holder, London Councils. Neil Stubbings from the
London Borough of Hillingdon, the lead borough representative from the
project team, will also be in attendance at the meeting to respond to the
points raised.
Recommendations It is recommended that the Leaders’ Committee agree to:


Note progress to date on the project, its projected next steps and
deliverables;
Endorse the programme and its aims in order to support further
engagement with other member groups and with senior borough
officers.
Homes Retrofit Project
Background
1. Homes are responsible for a significant proportion of CO2 emissions in London, accounting
for 38% of emissions if aviation is excluded (see Figure 1). Many boroughs are looking to
make significant CO2 savings through their local area agreement targets, and the Mayor
has recently made a commitment to a large scale retrofit of Londoners’ homes to help meet
his target of a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2025.
2. There are already many schemes in London that will deliver some sort of retrofitting
measures to approximately 30,000 homes this year, but there is now widespread
recognition that this level of activity will not be enough to deliver quick, significant and
necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from London’s homes. Modelling
suggests that at current take up levels, such schemes will only deliver in total around 1
million tonnes of carbon savings between now and 2015. By 2025, emissions from homes
need to be reduced by 7.7 million tonnes, of which 3.9 million tonnes is estimated to be
achievable through more comprehensive retrofitting (the remainder being from new build
and improvements in energy supply to homes).
Figure 1: 2006 CO2 emissions from London’s domestic sector
Source - Mayor’s Climate Change Action Plan, 2007
3. Much of the social housing stock in London has already been insulated through existing
and past programmes, but there are many more difficult-to-treat dwellings, such as tower
blocks, that still need detailed and specialist retrofitting action to bring them up to and
beyond the ‘Decent Homes standard’ in terms of thermal comfort. For private sector
homes, various loft and cavity wall insulation schemes have been running for a number of
years and have worked well, but the pace of delivery has been constrained by limited
funding, and in some boroughs, by the limited number of homes suitable for these
measures, particularly in inner London.
4. London has missed out on much of the Carbon Emission Reduction Target1 (‘CERT’)
funding spent on the domestic sector across Great Britain. As the scheme is national,
energy companies have provided most of the required emission savings actions outside
London due to the lower cost per tonne of CO2 saved for installing measures such as
insulation. The London Assembly’s recent study ‘Lagging Behind’ estimated it was unlikely
that more than 4.5% of insulation projects under CERT’s predecessor programme, Energy
Efficiency Commitment (EEC), were delivered in London, even though London represents
12.8% of the UK population. London therefore lost out on approximately £100 million in
energy efficiency funding over the period 2005 and 2008. London Futures have also
investigated this issue over the last twelve months and come to similar conclusions, having
recognised the need for a more joined up approach across the region to get more retrofit
funding directed towards London’s housing stock.
The opportunity
5. There is a huge opportunity to realise benefits (not limited to CO2 emission reduction
alone):

to offer the potential to deliver some benefit to all London households regardless of
tenure

to implement energy efficiency measures in 1.8 million London homes

to reduce carbon emissions, on average, by 8% by 2015 across London, contributing
significantly towards meeting targets in current Local Area Agreements and their likely
successors

to increase the level of spend by energy utilities on energy efficiency in London to over
£100m per annum (equating to 2-3 times the current spend level), with an associated
increase in levels of economic activity

1
to create over 2,000 jobs for Londoners
The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) is a statutory obligation that requires the 6 major energy
suppliers in Great Britain to deliver carbon dioxide emissions reductions in the domestic sector.

to reduce annual fuel bills by at least £60 per household, or up to £150 where loft and
cavity wall insulation is installed (between 5% and 12% of the average household’s fuel
bill)

to create certainty and scale for installers, therefore delivering economies of scale and
enabling the sector to ramp up its activity

and, to deliver a genuine London-wide partnership project between boroughs and the
GLA.
6. There is also an important opportunity to demonstrate how the combination of individual
technical retrofitting and broad based behavioural measures can achieve significantly more
than either approach alone, as well as to secure recognition under ‘CERT’ for properly
managed schemes of this nature.
Scope of the project
7. To be successful, such a scheme needs to be attractive to Londoners to get their buy in.
Key to this will be several elements, including providing:

a door to door scheme that is easy to understand;

initial ‘free’ easy measures;

common branding, but with the ability to have a local context as well (e.g. additional
borough branding);

an offer available to homes of all tenures.
8. The proposed joint scheme is two phased with ‘Phase 1’ offering ‘10 easy measures’ to all
London households, backed up by an expansion of existing cavity wall and loft insulation
schemes delivered to suitable homes (approximately one third of London homes). The
proposed ‘10 easy measures’ will provide:

low energy light bulbs

block gaps in floors and skirting

radiator panels

draught proofing

hot water tank insulation

stand-by switches

visual display units

tap aerators

showerheads

benefits check/referral and initial assessment for loft insulation, cavity wall insulation
and boilers.
9. This will be followed by ‘Phase 2’ which will deliver ‘harder’ measures such as solid wall
insulation, and energy efficient appliances such as boilers to qualifying households or
those wishing to pay a discounted rate.
10. The programme intends to reach 60% of London households over a five year period. The
initial contact with households to deliver ’10 easy measures’ will be used to assess the
suitability of each building for insulation and other carbon reduction measures, and to
provide a platform for creating behaviour change in the use of energy, as well as providing
referrals to borough benefits uptake teams.
Progress
11. The project has made significant progress to date.

London Councils, London Futures (formerly the London Collaborative strand of the
Capital Ambition programme), the GLA and the LDA are now working together to
further explore this opportunity on a partnership basis. This joint work has involved
carrying out background research, and further consultation with key stakeholders and
best practice authorities outside London

The project has secured funding from Capital Ambition and from the LDA to fund the
management of the project and the implementation of pilot projects to be delivered by
March 2010

The programme has secured the ‘in principle’ involvement of about 50% of London
boroughs. However, the intention is for all boroughs to sign up to taking part in the
project. The project team is currently working with sub-regional housing areas to
explain the scheme and gain further buy in from boroughs.
Funding
12. There is a good level of interest amongst potential funders such as the energy companies
but no clear commitments as yet.
13. Capital Ambition is supporting the project with project funding of £100,000. The LDA has
committed funding of up to £7.5 million for technical pilots and demonstration projects to be
delivered in 2009/2010. The project team have costed full implementation of the scheme
over 5 years to 2015 at £500 million. The aim is for £350 million of this funding to come
from CERT, via energy companies. The balance of funding would need to come from
other sources such as the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), DECC, CLG, GLA,
boroughs and ‘able to pay’ households.
Next steps and deliverables
14. Members will receive a presentation from the Mayor’s Director of Environment Policy
(Isabel Dedring) and the London Councils Portfolio Holder for Sustainability, Councillor
Sean Brennan, outlining the next steps for the project in more detail. Neil Stubbings from
the London Borough of Hillingdon, the lead borough representative from the project team,
will also be in attendance at the meeting to respond to pointes raised.
15. It is the intention of the partners to develop by April 2010 a viable plan to deliver a Londonwide programme up to 2015. A number of deliverables are intended between now and
April 2010 to assist this, with actions broadly falling into three areas

Demonstrating the concept at a pilot-scale

Development and roll-out of a pan-London scheme informed by the pilots

Lobbying government to ensure that London receives a fair share of funding.
16. In 2009/10 the partners plan to deliver a number of demonstration projects to up to 25,000
homes through existing borough-led home insulation schemes, and will be funded primarily
by development money from the LDA. Additional money is being sought from HCA and
from the energy utilities (as part of their delivery of their carbon reduction obligation). If
boroughs are able to contribute additional funds e.g. from their Targeted Funding Stream
funds, then larger scale demonstration project will be feasible.
17. In parallel, work on the longer term development of a pan-London retrofit scheme will
occur, drawing on emerging lessons learned from the demonstration projects. The aim is
to commence implementation of a large scale pan-London scheme around September
2010. The precise form of the scheme will be worked up during 2009/10.
Timetable.
18. By July 2009, it is intended that the project will have:

secured sign up in principle from London authorities

finalised details of pilot programme ready for launch by September/October 2009

have fully mobilised a cross-organisational team to deliver the project

have commenced an initial small technical trial
19. By Oct 2009 it is intended that:

the demonstration projects will have commenced; and

the work to secure funding and framework for delivery phase of the main project will be
in progress.
20. By Feb 2010 it is intended that:

funding would have been secured in principle for main scheme

detailed preparation will be completed for rolling out the main scheme including
timetable, methodology and procurement approach

details of the main programme launch would have been decided.

launched the homes retrofit programme by the Mayor of London and the Chairman of
London Councils.
21. By April 2010 the overall aim will be to create a viable plan to deliver a London-wide
programme up to 2015, which would:

deliver 10 ‘easy measures’ free to 1.8 million households

deliver loft and cavity wall insulation, heating controls and systems free, or at a
discounted price for those able to pay in the private sector

subject to feasibility and funding, supplement existing social housing programmes

reduce CO2 emissions by 0.9m tonnes pa, more than double the impact of existing
schemes

reduce CO2 emissions by a further 0.33m tonnes pa, via delivery of a further 0.5 million
loft insulations and 0.5 million cavity wall insulations

deliver a phased programme of further measures as funding and technology allows,
facilitated by data collected in the two previous phases. Such measures might include:
solid wall insulation, boiler upgrades, ground source heat pumps, solar thermal
technology, etc.
22. The development and design of the programme will be supported by lobbying activity, to
ensure the right policy environment is created for the delivery of large scale homes
retrofitting in London. Unified lobbying, with clear messages from the Mayor, LDA, London
Councils and individual Boroughs will maximise London's impact in Government. Every
effort will be made to secure additional funds, both opportunistically and on a long term
basis.
Governance
23. A joint project team has been set up, overseen by Isabel Dering from the Mayor’s Office,
Martin Powell from the LDA, and Faraz Barber from London Councils. This team has
steered the development of the programme to date and includes:

Neil Stubbings – Hillingdon/London Futures

Danielle Rippin – London Futures project manager

Michael Ojo – London Councils Head of Environment

Simon Whiteley - LDA
24. A Project Board is now intended to be set up to take on the oversight role for this project.
This Board will direct the work of the joint project team and will consist of:

Isabel Dedring, Director of Environment Policy, GLA

Hugh Dunnachie, Chief Executive, Hillingdon

Annie Shepperd, Chief Executive, Southwark

Faraz Barber, Director World City, London Councils

A representative from the LDA
Recommendations
25. It is recommended that the Leaders’ Committee agree to:

Note progress to date on the project, its projected next steps and deliverables;

Endorse the programme and its aims in order to support further engagement with other
member groups and with senior borough officers.
Financial Implications for London Councils
26. There are no specific financial implications from this report.
Legal Implications for London Councils
27. There are no specific legal implications from this report.
Equalities Implications for London Councils
28. There are no specific equalities implications from this report.