Report of an event by the SPA’s Climate Justice and Social Policy Group and Housing Policy Group on 25th January 2024 on ‘Tackling Housing Decarbonisation in a Cost-of-Living Crisis’. Written by Nicholas Harrington, Steve Rolfe, Carolyn Snell, and Harriet Thomson on behalf of the policy groups.
A recording of the event can also be viewed on Zoom here. Passcode: 1UB%H2.t.
Introduction
The world of 2024 seems to be awash with crises, many of which are interlinked in complex ways – what some have called a polycrisis. At a global level, we are clearly facing a climate crisis (not to mention a biodiversity crisis). In the UK, as in many parts of the Global North, there is a cost-of-living crisis, as well as a long-running housing crisis. As we argue in this blog, recognising the connections between these crises is crucial in developing effective policy responses which minimise negative unintended consequences.
Housing research has tended to sit somewhat apart from the wider Social Policy field, despite the obvious links between housing problems, poverty and health. Further, climate change remains a relatively niche part of Social Policy.
In response to this we established the Climate Justice and Social Policy Group and the Housing Policy Group in 2021 to provide platforms for these discussions, and to ‘mainstream’ issues of climate and housing into Social Policy. Climate change presents a challenge for all aspects of Social Policy, particularly housing, bringing with it the risks associated with more extreme weather conditions (flooding, storms, heat waves, etc.) with implications for how and where we live, and the risks we are exposed to. Moreover, responses required to adapt to climate change and reduce carbon emissions through decarbonisation/Net Zero policies have serious implications for housing. Perhaps the most obvious intersection between climate policy and the housing sector is the issue of decarbonising domestic heating. Indeed, weaning the UK from its dependence on cheap and plentiful natural gas as the primary heating fuel and onto clean heat solutions such as heat pumps is ostensibly a policy imperative for Westminster.
The challenge: decarbonising a fragile housing sector
The housing situation for low-income households in the UK has been characterised as a perfect storm of under-supply and unaffordability, compounded by more than a decade of austerity and welfare reform. Meanwhile, recent UK Government pronouncements on ending hotel contracts providing housing for asylum seekers seem likely to exacerbate yet another crisis – the fragile state of local government finances. Despite the obvious importance of these issues, housing remains something of a wobbly pillar within the welfare state, with responsibility fragmented between central and local government, social housing providers and private landlords, not to mention the role of developers. Moreover, the UK’s housing stock is notoriously poor, with damp and hard to heat homes being a major driver of fuel poverty.
Rolling out a decarbonisation programme within this context is challenging, but also has the potential to address environmental and social concerns simultaneously – for example, the better insulated and airtight a home, the better a heat pump works. To date, homes that have undergone these kinds of retrofit are far better suited to human habitation than much of the UK’s existing housing stock. In other words, getting our homes ready for Net Zero will also improve the health and well-being of the general population and should (in theory) ameliorate the issue of fuel poverty. Given this, our event on the 25th of January 2024 aimed to start a discussion about these challenges, and to consider how best to ensure a just transition to Net Zero.
Worsening fuel poverty as a result of the cost of living crisis
We heard from Harriet Thomson that the challenge of decarbonisation is being compounded by housing stock degradation in recent years due to cost-of-living and energy crises, with widespread issues of householders under-heating their homes, leading to serious damp and mould issues, in turn reducing energy efficiency. The levels of deprivation currently witnessed in the UK are usually not fed into energy and building models, which tend to be dominated by engineering and other technical disciplines, so we are likely to see a growing divide between hypothetical modelling, and real life conditions with diverse energy use practices. Moreover, households are not only cutting back on heating, but also turning to dangerous and polluting coping strategies, such as burning books, household waste, furniture etc. Key findings were reported from a representative UK household survey from late 2022, joint with National Energy Action, including the fact that 44% of households had turned to alternative cooking equipment (such as BBQs) in response to energy prices, and 28% had turned to using candles for lighting. Fire brigades across the country have warned about the dangers of DIY plant pot candle heaters, linked to numerous housefires, yet which remain viral on social media. This calls for sensitive approaches to decarbonisation, recognising that living without energy is the new norm for many households.
Decarbonisation during the cost of living crisis
Nicholas Harrington provided us with the case study of the Heat Pump roll out within this context. When it comes to decarbonising the heating of our homes several important questions have seemingly been set aside or neglected: How realistic is it to install a heat pump into the average UK property? How much would it cost the average homeowner to do so? How much can the average householder expect to pay for their heating once they’ve installed a heat pump?
With these questions unanswered, policymakers and advocates are unaware of the disparate impacts our decarbonisation agenda might have across an unequal society. Given fuel poverty, there is a sizeable portion of the population in no position to see higher energy bills. For households in fuel poverty, an extra £500 per year for heating means £500 less for food and clothing, potentially encouraging more risky heating practices.
The cost of decarbonising the average home in the UK is considerable. A heat pump costs around £12,000 and the insulation and other fabric improvements needed so the heat pump performs economically in the average home is another £18,000. If insulation and airtightness are ignored, the situation becomes quite serious. According to recent CaCHE research. In a best-case scenario (a newly built or deep retrofit home) the running cost of a heat pump is around 9% higher than an efficient gas boiler (all else being equal). In an average-case scenario, the running cost of a heat pump is around 36% higher than a gas boiler (all else being equal).
The challenge for social policy
Given the serious material costs associated with decarbonising the housing sector in the context of an unequal society, policymakers need to think seriously about the right kind of policy mix to distribute costs equitably.
Realistically, some can pay to meet a Net Zero future, others can contribute, and a final group of householders who will need complete coverage. While the cost of electricity remains intractably high, the government and local authorities are faced with a considerable dilemma: (a) spend hundreds of billions over the next decade retrofitting 14 million homes; (b) spend untold billions subsidising the cost of electricity for the millions living in fuel poverty; or (c) some combination of billions now and more into the future.
So, there are no easy answers to tackling housing decarbonisation in a cost-of-living crisis, but the need to consider inequality is crucial. We intend to continue this conversation, including in a joint symposium at the 2024 SPA conference, aiming to raise the voice of Social Policy researchers in shaping the path to Net Zero.
To get involved, contact:
Climate Justice and Social Policy Group: cuspspa@gmail.com
Housing Policy Group: steve.rolfe@stir.ac.uk