Actions to date and direction of travel

In September 2020 the council established a Greener Housing Task and Finish Group of key members to begin exploring the measures required to meet government targets to upgrade the energy performance of all social housing to at least a C rating, and for all social housing stock to be carbon neutral by 2050, whilst learning from our residents on their day-to-day experiences with fuel poverty and energy usage.

We have therefore begun to implement a number of key actions to complement the strategy.

These are:

Joined the 'Good Homes Alliance' Networking Group of social housing landlords piloting and exploring improved standards of energy performance and new technologies in new build social housing.
Joined the 'SuperHomes' Networking Group of social housing landlords piloting and exploring improved standards of energy performance and new technologies in retrofit programmes to existing social housing stock.
Founder members of a local initiative to reduce food and fuel poverty led by New Forest Citizens Advice and local voluntary groups, which has successfully received external funding to appoint a Local Campaign Manager to work across the district promoting food and fuel poverty awareness and initiatives. The group also commissioned a report on fuel and food poverty by the University of Southampton to help partners understand priorities and issues.
Commissioned Resolution Energy to evaluate existing stock condition data and model the costs of retrofit programmes to meet government targets by 2030 and 2050 respectively.
Commissioned Pennington Choices to complete our Stock Condition Survey programme on all our properties by January 2024, to better inform our retrofit programmes with 100% accurate stock data.
Acquired land and commissioned a new exemplar housing scheme of 12 properties in Totton that meets the government's Future Housing Standard with Air Source Heat Pumps heating the home and hot water, triple glazing instead of double, an enhanced building fabric and electric vehicle (EV) charging points.
Planned maintenance programmes, worth over £6m per year, continue replacing doors, windows and roofs.
Our new Private Sector Housing Landlord Forum launched in November 2021 and has a clear focus on energy efficiency.
2,884 energy efficiency measures have been installed in council homes in the last five years, including the installation of 1,330 new efficient heating systems, including seven Air Source Heat Pumps, four large scale Photovoltaic schemes on our Extra Care buildings and housing for older people properties, 1,293 homes fitted with new windows and doors and, over 250 homes insulated.
Received approval of the Future Homes Standard as our new build specification for new council housing.
Partnered with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Councils (BCP) and BCHA, a Bournemouth based housing association, to form a consortium to bid for SHDF wave funding later in 2022.
Partnered with E on and Warmfront Ltd to secure 100% funding to upgrade the Cavity Wall Insulation in 100 of our social housing homes prior to 30 June 2022, as part of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) phase 3 funding scheme, and to programme many hundreds more later in 2022 as part of the forthcoming ECO phase 4 scheme.
Agreed to pilot new electrical heating technologies in Limetree House, Lymington.
Partnered with Hampshire County Council to commission a report to provide analysis on the housing stock across the New Forest and the potential retrofit Pathways to reach Net Zero by 2050.
Reduced the use of paper through digital initiatives and upgraded IT solutions supporting 'paperless' activities.