Nearly four million Northern homes fail to meet crucial energy efficiency rating, report finds
Fixing nearly four million leaky homes in the North of England is now “critical” to help those hit hardest by fuel poverty, the region’s leading housing membership body has warned.
New research by the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC), which represents housing organisations in the region, found that 3.8 million homes are failing to reach an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C.
The North is home to a third of England’s fuel-poor households. Living in these poorly insulated homes are costing tenants at least £680 a year, it has been revealed the NHC’s annual Northern Housing Monitor report.
The report found that one in six Northern households were already in fuel poverty before the latest energy price rises and cost of living crisis.
Echoing similar calls made this week by the National Housing Federation (NHF), the report urged the government to use next week’s Autumn Budget to invest a further £4bn into retrofitting leaky properties.
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The 2020 statistic of one in six Northern households in fuel poverty is likely to have “increased sharply” in the past 12 months, the NHC said. The Climate Change Committee has suggested that an additional two million to four million households may be pushed into fuel poverty.
The NHC report said the percentage of households in the North experiencing fuel poverty in each local authority ranges between 10% and 20%, higher than most local authorities in Southern England.
One of the highest regional rates is in Yorkshire and the Humber (17.5%), a region with a median income under £23,500.
The report also highlighted how it had the lowest share of overall homes reaching fuel energy efficiency bands A to C, supporting the suggestion that fuel poverty may have increased across the region.
The government has set a target for all UK homes to be upgraded to good energy efficiency levels by 2035, but the energy crisis has increased the urgency.
Before his resignation as prime minister this summer, Boris Johnson reportedly ordered ministers to divert £1bn from other schemes to set up a national insulation programme for low-income households.
The NHC has called on the government to accelerate a further £4bn, first pledged in the Conservatives’ manifesto, to create a long-term investment programme for homes in the North.
Tracy Harrison, chief executive at NHC, said: “It’s very clear that energy efficiency is now as much a social challenge as a climate challenge. While the introduction of the Energy Price Guarantee offers some relief and short-term support, it is also expensive for government and will now be reduced in April.
“A long-term solution is required, not a temporary sticking plaster. Ramping up existing programmes will build on the North’s emerging retrofit success stories, cutting energy use and waste for good.”
According to the NHC, bringing homes in the North up to have an EPC rating of C would require retrofitting at least 270,000 homes annually to 2035.
This is over 700 homes a day or one home every two minutes.
The body added that achieving the target of decarbonising the North’s homes by 2035 could generate 77,000 direct jobs in the region and 111,000 indirect jobs across the UK.
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