Abstract
Over coming decades, deep reductions in carbon emissions will be required from existing social housing as part of the UK’s effort to combat climate change. The ability of social landlords to carry out interventions to achieve these emission cuts is strongly influenced by the context in which they operate. This paper reports the results of a 3-year participant observation study of one UK social landlord, undertaken with the aim of identifying contextual factors that either support or hinder its ability to carry out carbon reduction interventions. The results indicate that a lack of funds to finance the required interventions is the most significant barrier to the achievement of deep emission cuts. Other key issues identified include the lack of a strong drive to act from government, a need for increased internal capacity to enable landlords to deliver and manage carbon reduction interventions and a low level of interest from residents in achieving emission cuts. These results lead to a number of recommendations for policymakers: to mandate action on the part of social landlords to achieve high levels of energy efficiency in their stock, to intervene in the market to make the required interventions financially viable and to put forward policies and long-term goals that will enable social landlords and householders to view stock refurbishment as part of a society-wide effort to decarbonise existing housing.
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Notes
Sustainable Homes Index For Tomorrow (SHIFT) is a framework for monitoring work on sustainability by social landlords.
The impacts of funding refurbishment of Peabody stock through stock sales or rent increases were explored in Reeves et al. (2009).
Abbreviations
- CHP:
-
Combined heat and power
- ESCo:
-
Energy services company
- GLA:
-
Greater London Authority
- KPI:
-
Key performance indicator
- RSL:
-
Registered social landlord
- SHIFT:
-
Sustainable Homes Index for Tomorrow
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Acknowledgements
This research has been carried out through an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council-funded industrial CASE studentship, delivered through the Integration of New and Renewable Energy in Buildings Faraday partnership, with support from Peabody. Thanks are due to Kate Irvine and Paul Fleming at De Montfort University for feedback on previous drafts and to Rob Wall, Simon Taylor, Ian Worthington, Andrew Wallace and Beverly Allan at De Montfort University for providing useful support. Thanks also to everyone at Peabody for their collaboration and assistance.
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Reeves, A. Making it viable: exploring the influence of organisational context on efforts to achieve deep carbon emission cuts in existing UK social housing. Energy Efficiency 4, 75–92 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-010-9080-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-010-9080-8