Report Launch: A Fair and Equitable Transition? Tenants’ experiences of decarbonising social housing – Guest Blog from Dr. Vickie Cooper

by Dr Vickie Cooper, Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy, The Open University.

Its been a pleasure to work as the lead academic on this research carried out in partnership between Tai Pawb and the Open University. This study explores social housing tenants’ positive and negative experiences of transitioning to low carbon housing. The key questions guiding the study were: how does decarbonised housing advance housing equality, and how does it exacerbate housing inequality?

Full report available via the following links: 

Fersiwn Gymraeg

English Version

The research involved three focus groups involving 23 social housing tenant participants, and one focus group involving 11 policymakers and practitioners. Focus groups were carried out with tenant participants living in urban and rural areas in Wales.

What is decarbonising housing?

‘Decarbonising housing’ is a policy priority in Wales and across the UK. Decarbonising housing is strategically important for achieving a 95% reduction of carbon emissions by 2050 (a legal requirement set out in the Climate Change Act 2008). The UK Committee for Climate Change stressed that ‘will not meet our targets for emissions reduction without near complete decarbonisation of the housing stock’.

There is a policy wide understanding that decarbonising housing can reduce carbon emissions and help address inequality related issues with fuel poverty and poor quality housing. Housing inequality is a negative situation experienced unevenly across different social groups. It is mainly marginalised and minority populations, such as young adults, old people, disabled people and minority ethnic groups who are likely to experience housing inequality. Minority ethnic groups disproportionately live in poor quality housing, where issues with overcrowding and poor air quality are common. Damp and mould is also a prevalent housing issue for ethnic minority groups in Wales. Low-income groups face an acute shortage of good quality and affordable housing, and there is a drastic shortage of accessible housing in Wales for disabled people

Governments believe that decarbonised housing can resolve such issues with housing inequality, but the transition to low carbon housing is not an easy adjustment to make and can disproportionately affect vulnerable social groups already experiencing inequality and can bring about new injustices.

A Fair and just transition? Key findings

Our study found that renewable energy sources such as solar panels, can support issues around economic disadvantage. Some tenants notice a significant reduction in their energy costs, however other tenants struggle to use their solar panels because they do not have support with registering them, or because they are faulty. Our study found that tenants’ positive and negative experiences of using renewable sources largely depended on the quality of housing support they received.

“…it’s made such a difference to my life…for somebody who’s on a limited income, you know. Going from putting £40/£50 a week, which I was doing, and now £20 every three weeks…” (Tenant Participant)

“We have to chase them to make sure, because my bills were so high, the hot water, everybody was complaining from the hot water, they didn’t know how to use this thing….and you have to chase them [Housing provider] to make sure that, “Is my solar power really working because it seems like it’s not working?” You have to chase them up…”(Tenant Participant)

Implementing decarbonising measures can be fragmented and take a long time to complete. Our study found that ongoing issues with damp and mould housing forced tenants to make difficult decisions around energy consumption. Here tenants made significant trade-offs, such a not turning their heating on during winter months because their homes are inefficient (cannot retain heat) and because of high energy costs. To help manage these issues, tenants relied on high-energy appliances such as tumble dryers, which help to avoid drying laundry indoors (and help with managing already high condensation levels therefore) and minimise the use of heating:

“It’s cheaper to use the tumble dryer because I’ve got damp in the property, because [damp] means windows are open, which means heating on to dry clothes. But windows that are open isn’t energy efficient. So for me, chucking it in the tumble dryer, you know, you get the condenser dryers and they’re not that expensive to run, and it actually saves me on energy because the prices on gas are just increasing now. I think mine have gone up another 10%.….” (Tenant participant)

Our study also found that decarbonising housing measures introduce new challenges with overheating during summer months. Tenants experienced issues with overheating partly because energy efficiency measures increase air tightness and retention of heat, and because global temperatures are rising – a major effect of climate change. Overheating disproportionately and negatively effects disabled tenants and tenants with existing health issues. To mitigate the negative effects, tenants rely on fans and air conditioner appliances to manage room temperatures which leads to an increase in energy consumption and possible rise in energy costs:

Yeah, I mean, I live in a two-bedroomed fairly modern, four years old [property]. It is prefabricated, and I know that they’ve done extra things on the external walls for thermal [insulation] and all this. But I just can’t cope with the heat. In the summer it’s just crazy. It really is crazy….. (Tenant participant)

Based on our findings and conclusions, our study makes the following recommendations:

• Social landlords redistribute efforts and resource to understand how or if tenants are using decarbonised technologies, and reskilling of dedicated workforce to comprehend any issues and provide adequate support as required.

• More community-led approaches should be facilitated enabling tenants to be involved in, or help steer, spaces for knowledge sharing and learning about decarbonised housing – a space where tenants can learn how to use solar panels, heat pumps and insulation measures is recommended.

• The Welsh Government issues regulatory guidance on how to mitigate the risk of overheating in summer months.

• The Welsh Government provides guidance on fair and equitable examples of decarbonised housing models; and housing associations ensure the diversity of tenant representation at consultation and decision-making levels to help deliver fairer and more equitable responses to decarbonised housing.

This study brings marginalised voices to the table, and their insights and stories are at the heart of our findings and recommendations. If you would like to know more you can download the research report here in English or Welsh, or contact Tai Pawb on info@taipawb.org