14 December 2009

News from the inside

What does Copenhagen mean for social housing providers?

Inside Housing magazine asked me to let readers know of anything of special interest to the social housing sector from the Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP15).

Things are getting tense here this morning, with the African nations threatening to walk out en masse if the developed countries don’t get more serious (see video below from last week). The negotiators are haggling over what greenhouse gas reduction targets to go for. But for us in the UK a legally binding target is already set by the Climate Change Act, 80% by 2050 and 34% by 2020. The Tyndall Centre has said we need to reduce GHG in the UK by 6% per annum if we are to meet our 2050 target.

I think that whatever happens at Copenhagen social housing providers are on the frontline of tackling climate change and just need to get on with de-carbonising their tenants' homes and lifestyles. You are really important agents for change. 

Eleven million UK residents live in social housing. That is 18% of the population and you can help residents with about half of their carbon footprint. Most obviously you can help residents to totally cut the 23% of carbon emissions from energy use in the home through insulation, energy saving appliances and renewable energy supply. Of course this also addresses fuel poverty and health at the same time. If you are building new you can reduce construction impacts (8% of carbon footprint) and design walk-able neighbourhoods with the facilities people need close by. You can reduce transport impacts (23% of footprint) in existing homes too by introducing car clubs. You can even help residents to reduce their food impacts (23% of GHG) by promoting healthy low impact diets and encouraging availability of such food in nearby stores. Through education and systems to encourage the right behaviour you can also help residents reduce waste impacts. You can see more about the detail behind this in reports and information on on our website.

I suggest that every social landlord needs an action plan to get its entire housing stock to zero carbon. In my opinion, based on the science I have heard here this last week, we all need to do this over ten years as the policy is lagging behind the science.

Social housing providers can do so much to tackle climate change so please re-double your efforts, and if there are things standing in the way of action then maybe Inside Housing could collect your feedback and try and identify practical ways to make sure you can get the job done.

Sue Riddlestone
Executive Director and co-founder