West Midlands Mayor visits social housing residents to learn more about investment in Birmingham's affordable housing sector

Andy Street, mayor for the West Midlands, said: 

“Improving the quality of the region’s social housing is mission critical because too many people’s lives continue to be blighted by substandard properties.

“The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) recently passed nearly £15m to the region’s seven metropolitan councils to help tackle mould and damp in the worst homes.

“But much of our wider social housing stock would benefit massively from being fitted with 21st century technology that can improve energy efficiency, cut carbon and tackle fuel poverty.  So, it was interesting to see first-hand how the Switchee device is providing the real-world data needed to help determine what type of retrofit work would benefit the property and those living in it the most.” 

Councillor Jayne Francis, cabinet member for Housing and Homelessness, said: 

“Improving and renovating the city’s existing housing stock is Birmingham City Council’s number one housing priority. We are investing a record £5bn in our housing stock over the next 30 years to ensure our tenants and leaseholders can live in warm, safe, and sustainable homes.

“As part of that work programme, the council is retrofitting 2,076 homes across the city to help make more homes energy efficient, reduce tenants’ bills, and keep homes warm. We are also using Social Housing Decarbonisation Funding to deliver a pilot to install 300 Switchee devices with our partner Equans. This pilot will give us valuable feedback to drive better understanding of the performance of our stock that will help to future-proof more homes as we work towards achieving Net Zero. Switchee acts as a smart control, allowing our residents to control their heating and hot water via an app.

“Birmingham City Council is pleased to be working in partnership with Equans and Switchee to address the challenges we face around energy efficiency, fuel poverty, damp and mould, and decarbonisation.”

Steve Batty, director of sustainability at Equans said: 

“We were delighted to welcome Andy to see the work Equans is doing to make hundreds of Birmingham City Council’s homes warmer, more efficient, and cheaper to heat for residents. This project is the largest of its kind in the UK, which gives us the opportunity to trial a range of retrofit solutions – from individual measures, through to whole-house transformations. Partnering with Switchee is a vital part of assessing the success of this work, allowing us to see which approach works best for different property types, informing future retrofit programmes, and leading to the best possible results for residents.”

Our Cities, placemaking, living and the net zero challenge programme is supported by E.ON, Equans and Mears