Clarion discuss funding for decarbonisation

Clarion Housing Group is the largest social landlord in England, managing homes for over 350,000 people.

Fenland District Council, and Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council secured £4.5m from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), run by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), to improve the energy efficiency of social housing. The grant was match-funded with a further £4.5m investment from Clarion.

Retrofit measures implemented include triple glazed windows and extensive external wall and loft insulation, as well as green technologies including air source heat pumps, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and centralised mechanical ventilation.

The funds are being used to significantly upgrade 115 of the most energy inefficient Clarion homes across the two local authorities, which currently have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D or below. A focus of the project is to understand how far you can take an existing home with a target of achieving a heat demand of 50kw/h or better following the new PAS 2035 framework.

Getting started

We undertook a holistic analysis of our data to identify opportunities and then completed a deeper dive into specific opportunities to validate initial findings and create an asset list considering the requirements of PAS 2035.

We collaborated with contractors United Living and Equans along with specialist consultant Bailey Garner and Enhabit to develop our bid submission including governance, specification, cost and programme. We also worked closely with our housing colleagues to shape our customer strategy and opened discussions with a local authority about the funding opportunity.

Challenges

Outside of the wider issues caused by the pandemic and national supply issues, we haven’t faced many challenges as such. The PAS 2035 framework is extensive and has taken time to understand but the whole collaborative partnership has worked to drive the programme forwards.

The timeframe for delivery has been a push but we have adapted well to get into a good position.