We want a Green Deal that works for us
The Green Deal
Energy bills are rising year on year and being able to
afford to live in a warm, comfortable home is becoming increasingly
challenging. In a recent survey, 22% of our
residents reported that they find it difficult to heat their home
and 67% of them were worried about increasing energy
bills.
While Affinity Sutton welcomes the
Government’s drive to help people save energy at home we do not
feel that the current Green Deal policy will deliver sufficient
energy savings for our homes or provide value for money for our
residents. We will continue to work with Government to shape a
Green Deal we believe works better for social housing
residents.
Affinity Sutton has already carried out a
great deal of energy efficiency works to its homes at no extra cost
to residents and continues to do so year on year. We estimate that
we’ve already made a 24% saving in carbon emissions since 1990
through ongoing boiler replacement and cavity and loft insulation
programmes. The energy efficiency of a property is measured by SAP
rating whereby the higher the rating, the better the energy
efficiency of the property. The average SAP of Affinity Sutton
homes is 69, compared to a national average of 55. This means that
for many of our residents there is not a great deal of work left
that the Green Deal will cover.
We want to ensure that Affinity Sutton
residents are not struggling to stay warm at home and we have been
addressing the energy efficiency of our homes for a long time
already through our FutureFit and EnergyFit projects. But we need
to be sure that we approach energy efficiency improvements in the
best way for our residents and our homes. We do not believe that
the Green Deal in its current form is the best way to do this and
we will not be granting consent for Green Deal works in our
homes.
A better Green Deal in the
future?
Despite these concerns, we are confident that
a version of the Green Deal that works for our residents can be
achieved in the future. Because of the high profile of our
innovative FutureFit project, we now sit on the Green Deal Provider
group with the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
which is working to shape a Green Deal that works specifically for
social housing. Using insights gained through our FutureFit
project we have also responded to a Commons Select Committee call
for evidence to help Government determine how Green Deal success
should be measured.
Affinity Sutton supports
the Green Deal as a concept. But we believe that certain
changes need to be made and the policy needs to be more established
before we can work with it. As energy bills continue to rise,
savings through the Green Deal are more likely to be achieved. We
will monitor progress and continue to feed into Government how we
think it could be improved so that it would work better for our
residents.
Affinity Sutton is strongly committed to
affordable energy and has invested heavily in improving the energy
performance of our homes
- The average SAP of Affinity Sutton homes is
69, compared to a national average of 55
- Affinity Sutton is working with Government
and other agencies to shape a Green Deal that will work for social
housing and our residents specifically.
- We are developing our own retrofit strategy
to address energy efficiency in our properties
- Although not appropriate right now, we see
the Green Deal as an important funding stream for any future
retrofit strategies
- We will be advising our residents not
to pay a charge for Green Deal assessments, since currently we will
not be granting consent for any works.