How can housing associations and local authorities, leaver expertise in the building products supply chain to deliver better, more sustainable and higher quality homes? We explore the options.
Housing associations and local authorities face a heady mix of challenges. The failure of successive governments to deliver new social and affordable homes means that of the around four million properties owned by local authorities, housing associations and registered social providers, 86 per cent – around 3.4million homes – were built before 2001.
With numerous updates to building regulations, an increased focus on energy efficiency and shifting customer expectations, social housing providers are under pressure to deliver energy efficiency, security and safety upgrades, with limited funding.
“Even with the potential release of new government funding, registered providers are under pressure to deliver new homes or energy efficient upgrades of existing properties with limited funding available.
“Simply approaching social housing specification in the same old way, isn’t going to deliver the results that local authorities and registered providers want for their residents”, says Jody Vincent , Sales Director, the Commercial Window Group.
“We need a new model which combines genuine product innovation with a new and more flexible model of delivery, supporting social housing providers in maximising the impact of budgets in the delivery of better social homes.”
So how big is the challenge and could a redefined relationship with the building products supply chain be part of the solution?
The UK is home to approximately 4 million social homes, representing around 16% of all households. These homes are split between local authorities, which manage around 1.6 million properties (40%), and housing associations, who are responsible for the remaining 60% or 2.4 million homes.
This division reflects decades of policy shifts that saw housing associations take on a greater role, particularly post-Right to Buy and during the Decent Homes Programme era.
Social housing stock as it stands, is a mix of high-rise flats (six storeys and above) which account for roughly 15-20%; low-rise flats (up to five storeys), which account for 37% of social stock; and houses (including terraced, semi-detached and detached): which make up approximately 40% of homes.
“The backdrop of the Building Safety Act is clearly important here, but it’s worth noting that the majority of social housing properties don’t fall into that more complex higher risk building category of seven storeys. That brings flexibility in specification.
“For example, as a specialist manufacturer and installer of social housing and commercial windows and doors, we supply an extensive range of Tilt-and-Turn, Fully Reversible and Casement windows from Profile 22.
“With regional installation specialists on the ground, we can work closely with local authorities and registered providers to support them in maximising their budgets without compromising on product performance.”
Time to revisit window and door energy efficiency?
Jody argues that with a high proportion of social properties retrofitted under the Decent Homes programme, window and door replacement is something of a ticking time bomb for social housing providers.
Running from 2000 to 2010, more than 1.4 million homes were refurbished under the Decent Homes programme. Alongside kitchens and bathrooms, it also included a series of energy efficient measures including windows and doors.
“There are no centrally held figures for the total number of window and door replacements that took place under the Decent Homes scheme but if you look at local authority figures and extrapolate them nationally, new windows were fitted to around 1 to 1.2million properties over a 10-year period”, Jody says.
He continues: “If you consider depending on use and maintenance, those windows and doors have a 15-20 year lifespan, a lot of the windows and doors delivered under the scheme are coming towards the end of their service life.”
He argues that given an average of 6-8 windows and 1-2 external doors per property, the UK’s social housing stock likely contains around 24–32 million windows and 4–8 million external doors.
With a large portion of installations dating from the Decent Homes era (2001–2010), this would mean that at least 60-70% of existing windows and doors are now at the end or beyond their optimal performance life.
“That’s a big potential cost to local authorities and registered social providers, making the right choices about social window and door specification now, absolutely critical to not only capital but also maintenance budgets”, Jody adds.
Can social housing providers deliver new social housing cost effectively?
Since the Decent Homes Programme was wound-down in 2010, the pace of new social home construction has slowed significantly with fewer than 300,000 new social rented homes built in England since 2010, with the majority of affordable housing delivery skewing towards shared ownership or intermediate rent rather than traditional council housing.
The Labour government pledged the most substantial boost to social and affordable housing in a generation last summer. This includes the delivery of a total of 1.5 million new homes by 2029, with £2 billion investment through the Affordable Homes Programme, targeting 18,000 new homes by March 2027.
It’s also committed to a £13.2 billion spend on the Warm Homes Plan to retrofit and upgrade existing housing with insulation, new heating systems, and efficient glazing
“New homes are one thing”, continues Jody. “but there are a lot of properties that were retrofitted over two-decades ago and now fall short on energy efficiency under Part L or their EPC rating, or Part F and ventilation.
“The latter is a particularly emotive point and something which needs to be addressed to make sure that homes deliver a safe and healthy environment for residents.”
EPCs (Energy Performance Certificate framework) are according to Jody, another line in the sand for registered social providers, with historical window and door updates falling short of the broader ambitions. This targets a minimum EPC C rating for all homes by 2030.
“Older windows and door, even when Part L-compliant, simply don’t deliver the energy savings that local authorities and housing associations need to achieve higher efficiency benchmarks”, he says.
Social housing supply chain partnerships
“The future of social housing refurbishment relies on smart partnerships,” continues Jody. “The Commercial Window Group offers social housing providers access not just to technical compliance and quality products, but a delivery model that works with the grain of local housing providers’ needs.”
Offering a full specification design and support service, the Commercial Window Group also has one of the UK’s most experienced technical support teams and can support the specification process including maximising value, SAP ratings, wind and barrier loadings, as well as u and g-value calculations.
It’s made up of a network of specialist and expert new build and commercial window and door installers. Members have to hold all relevant accreditation and deliver works to agreed minimum specifications.
The Commercial Window Group also offers a 12-month fixed price from point of contract. This means that quantity surveyors can develop accurate budgets without the risk of unseen costs.
Vertically integrated, the model also brings complete visibility to the commercial window and door supply chain. Windows are manufactured exclusively by the Emplas Group, one of the UK’s largest window and door fabricators, with more than four decades expertise of supply into the social housing specification sector.
“The building products supply chain has an incredible depth of expertise, and a willingness to engage in collaborative project delivery encompassing social housing providers, contractors – and most importantly residents”, Jody says.
“A lot of that expertise was built up under the Decent Homes Programme, and with many of those retrofit installations now coming to the end of their reference service life, is going to be invaluable in the cost-effective and sustainable delivery of future retrofit programmes.”
For more information on the Commercial Window Group’s next generation high performance window and door ranges and our regional delivery partners call 01234 567890 or email [email protected]
