Social Housing: Support and Financial Resources

Guidance, Resources and Reports

• See here the government’s website on Energy Efficiency in Social Housing.
• The Zero Emissions Social Housing Taskforce (ZESHT) (established 2021, now closed) acted independently of government to advise on requirements in social housing to meet net zero targets. Their Achieving Net Zero in Social Housing report (Aug 2021).
• The Domestic Building Services Compliance Guide 2022 for Scotland (Feb 2023) provides detailed guidance for the installation of fixed building services in new and existing buildings in support of compliance with the energy efficiency requirements set out under standards 6.3 to 6.7 of the building regulations as set out in section 6 of the 2022 Technical Handbook. It covers the design, installation, and commissioning of low-carbon heat generation by heat pumps, solar thermal panels, biomass boilers, direct electric space heating and micro-combined heat and power systems, as well as links to further practical guidance and UK and European Standards.
• London Energy Transformation Initiative’s (LETI) Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide is useful for local authorities and social landlords, among other professionals, looking for guidance about best practice retrofit.
• Passivhaus Social: Maximising Benefits, Minimising Costs is an ongoing campaign run by the Passivhaus Trust to assist Local Authorities and Housing Associations in adopting and implementing the Passivhaus Standard. This includes the free Passivhaus Retrofit Masterclass lecture series.
• Research Report – Passivhaus Retrofit in the UK
• Technical Guidance – Modelling existing dwellings in PHPP Periodic Heating
• A report by Element Energy and Energy Saving Trust for the Scottish Government on Technical Feasibility of Low Carbon Heating in Domestic Buildings (Dec 2020) analysed the Scottish housing stock and outlined the most suitable type of low-carbon heating systems for different property types. It discusses the barriers to installing energy efficiency improvements and low-carbon heating technologies. See here the 2017 and 2040 technical feasibility sheet.
• The Hab-Lab service (delivered by John Gilbert Architects and the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit) provides detailed building performance monitoring and evaluation to help improve the energy efficiency and durability. The service supports social landlords to benchmark, measure and improve the performance of their building stock. Initial social landlord partners included Renfrewshire Council.
• The Centre for Sustainable Energy provides information of low carbon retrofitting.
• The Existing Homes Alliance is a coalition of housing, environmental, fuel poverty, consumer and industry organisations calling for urgent action to transform Scotland’s existing housing stock.
• Energy Savings Trust: Retrofitting the UK’s Housing Stock to reach Net Zero.

Financial Support

• The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund supports social housing landlords across Scotland to take forward projects to deploy zero emissions heat, improve energy efficiency, and reduce fuel poverty. Awards can cover up to 50% of the capital cost for these projects. The government has committed to investing £200 million until 2026.
• To help social landlords achieve the required efficiency ratings, the government has compiled a table identifying potential EESSH funding sources, as well as some additional information for landlords on frequently asked questions around topics such as EPCs, building regulations, and future-proofing policies. Updated guidance from Mar 2021 can be found here.
• Housing Infrastructure Fund aims to provide registered social landlords (RSLs) and local authorities (LAs) with grant support for the unlocking of sites where the scale and nature of infrastructure costs would prevent it from being supported through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.
• Rural and Islands Housing Fund aims to increase the supply of affordable housing of all tenures in rural Scotland.