Resident Scrutiny Group’s recommendations for sustainability at Abri

The RSG’s sustainability review was made up of three main steps:

1. They started off by reviewing our documented approach to sustainability.
2. They then reviewed information from other Housing Associations about sustainability and compared this to our approach.
3. They met with colleagues across the organisation to discuss each element of sustainability at Abri.

The RSG’s findings and recommendations focused on three main areas:

Fuel poverty

Fuel poverty is when someone is not able to keep their home warm enough. This is affected by three things: household income, fuel costs, and the energy efficiency of the home. In the UK around 13% of households are classed as ‘fuel poor’. The RSG determined that fuel poverty was a really important thing to tackle, and so they have recommended that we create a fuel poverty action plan. The fuel poverty action plan will need to start by making sure we know which of our customers are fuel poor or are likely to become fuel poor. It’ll need to have clear targets to make sure we’re really making an impact in reducing fuel poverty for our customers.

Short-term fixes

Many of the things we’re doing at Abri on sustainability are medium to long term, so the RSG discussed some short-term fixes that we can sort quickly. The RSG recognised that we’ve already made some great changes such as improving the energy efficiency of our offices and moving our IT systems to the cloud. A few other things could be done though, such as providing water butts and installing LED lighting in communal areas. A big thing that came up was that when a tenancy ends the energy supplier is by default switched to SSE. However, SSE do not supply green energy. It was recommended by the RSG that we explore if we can switch to a green tariff for all empty properties.

Potential financial impacts

We have over 35,000 properties currently and in 2019 the government bought in laws which mean all housing must be net zero carbon by 2050. We’ll need to retrofit our existing properties to make sure that they hit this target, which means doing things like installing insulation and double glazing, replacing heating systems and putting solar panels on roofs. This is going to be a really big task for us which will involve a large amount of money to cover costs of the retrofitting, and also the recruitment of new colleagues.

What now?

Since these recommendations and findings were completed late last year, they were handed over to Rose Bean, Interim Executive Director of Assets and Sustainability here at Abri. We’re pleased to see that progress is already being made:

• Our new asset management strategy sets out our approach to targeting fuel poverty. More work is underway to determine if we need a separate fuel poverty plan, or if the asset management strategy has enough detail to meet the requirements.
• We’re committing to removing the most inefficient heating systems from our homes within a three-year period. Homes will need to be EPC band C by 2030, but we’re aiming to hit that target by 2028.
• We’re currently looking at areas with high damp and mould rates, to see if fuel poverty is driving these issues.
• There is an ongoing review to see if green energy tariffs will be possible and affordable for our homes.

We’re excited to see more progress on the recommendations in the coming months. The RSG is made up entirely of our customers, and we’re really grateful that they’re helping us to be the best we can be. Next, they’ll be looking into complaints and anti-social behaviour.

See the full report here.