Sustainable housing in Scotland and caps on energy bills and rent – what #UKhousing has been tweeting about this month

Insight & comment27.09.227:00 AM by Jess Mccabe

Recent conversations on #UKhousing Twitter have been dominated by the government’s energy price measures and proposals to cap rent in the social housing sector. And on Scottish Housing Day, the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland launched a report calling for a sustainable housing standard. Jess McCabe reports

Last week’s Mini Budget prompted a huge amount of reaction on #UKhousing Twitter. Matt Downie (@matthew_downie), chief executive of Crisis, summed up: “Rents are going up at the fastest rate in 16 years. Evictions doubled. Councils are struggling to discharge basic housing duties. All of this could have been tackled. It wasn’t.”

There was huge concern about the impact of the budget on ordinary people and tenants.

Jan Bell (@JaniceFionaBell), head of specialist housing and support at United Welsh, tweeted: “People don’t need more money when they’re rich. People need to eat and not be cold!”

The government also came in for criticism for not doing enough in the budget to invest in insulation and retrofit.

Jess Ralston (@jessralston2) from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit tweeted:

Energy package costs £60bn for just 6m. This temporarily reduces bills, but does nothing to tackle root of problem

BEIS says insulating all homes could cost as little as £35bn. This reduces bills every year & improves energy secure forever

What's better value for taxpayer?🤔
— Jess Ralston (@jessralston2) September 23, 2022

@existinghomes kicked off with some international comparisons: “Across Europe, countries are acting to tackle rising energy prices, focusing on making homes more energy efficient – Germany & Ireland ramping up public sector investment in retrofits and heat pumps, Italy providing up to 110% tax rebates on investment costs.”

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Scotland, meanwhile, launched an informative report that calls for a new sustainable housing standard. Gavin Smith (@gavdsmith), chair of CIH Scotland and Ore Valley Housing Association, tweeted:

It may be a more muted #scottishhousingday but I hope that all housing professionals are taking a bit of time to reflect on the difference we make to peoples lives every day! The challenges ahead are complex and significant but the sector will respond! https://t.co/32xzbhpZWO
— Gavin Smith (@gavdsmith) September 14, 2022

Construction company @CCG_Scotland’s tweet, though, rather ironically highlighted the conundrum facing the sector. “3,000 mixed-tenure homes under construction incl 673 net zero or low carbon homes,” the organisation tweeted, which raised some questions about the other 2,327 homes.

Prime minister Liz Truss announced a price cap of £2,500 on energy bills earlier this month. This is expected to limit the catastrophic impact of energy price rises, but at roughly double last year’s prices, fuel poverty is still predicted to increase.

@instituteforgov tweeted about its report, which estimated that a major energy efficiency programme could cut £27bn off households’ energy bills by 2023. Meanwhile, @doug_parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace, said:

If new UK Chancellor Kwarteng is intent on ‘going for growth’ then he needs to kick-start the home upgrade programme he championed as Energy Secretary

It would grow the whole economy by £7bn by 2030
🧵🧵 1/6
https://t.co/HDhIlvFCez
— Doug Parr (@doug_parr) September 20, 2022

@_JulietPhillips, senior policy advisor at climate consultancy E3G, tweeted:

Energy bill support is welcome, but overlooks energy saving measures like insulation & heat pumps that are vital for affordable energy security.

Fracking & nuclear can’t keep us warm this winter – we urge the government to announce a new home retrofit scheme as soon as possible
— Juliet Phillips (@_JulietPhillips) September 8, 2022

Underlining the significance of all these strategies and numbers, @jencj tweeted from the #energycrisisconf: “It’s heartbreaking to hear how children are being affected by poverty. Even free school meals doesn’t cover what our children need and they’re literally going hungry and then coming home to a cold home!”

Spotlight on ministers

Another new housing secretary was appointed earlier this month – @SimonClarkeMP. “This is a department that I know really well, and which I am so looking forward to returning to – the commitment and expertise of officials there on themes as diverse as homelessness, building safety and devolution is second to none,” Simon Clarke tweeted, when his appointment was first announced.

Inside Housing will, of course, be keeping an eye on his Twitter account. For those with an eye on the net zero agenda, he is tracking Conservative climate change campaign group @ClimateTories; The Times’ environment editor @adamvaughan_uk; and COP26 president @AlokSharma_RDG.

Much of #UKhousing Twitter has been reacting to the government’s rent cap proposals for social housing in England and the Scottish government’s decision to freeze social rents. @KwajoHousing summed up the conundrum:

A rent cap is definitely needed to support Social Housing tenants. I’m glad it’s being considered by the government and fully support it. A lot of Social Housing tenants are from low income backgrounds, a hike in rent would be disastrous for them financially.
— KWAJO- Social Housing (@KwajoHousing) August 31, 2022

He also called for more support, particularly for local authority landlords, saying: “No doubt if this doesn’t happen we will see standards within housing slip further, we already know how bad things are.”

Who to follow

@eeiguk – the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group, which aims to make “the energy performance of our buildings a national infrastructure investment priority”. One to follow for analysis on energy efficiency, insulation, retrofits and fuel poverty

@wishscotland – Women in Social Housing Scotland officially launched earlier this month

@ScrutinySteve – a member of housing association Stonewater’s scrutiny panel, Steve can be found tweeting about all sorts to do with housing, resident involvement and being a carer