Housing Matters.

A 2019 report by the UK Committee on Climate Change and its Adaptation Committee assessed whether the UK’s housing stock was adequately prepared for the challenges of climate change both in terms of reducing emissions from UK homes and ensuring homes are adequately prepared for the impacts of climate change.

Their conclusions were:

Performance and compliance. The way new homes are built and existing homes retrofitted often falls short of stated design standards.

Skills gap. The chopping and changing of UK Government policy has led to a skills gap in housing design, construction and in the installation of new technologies.

Retrofitting existing homes. Ensuring existing homes are low-carbon and resilient to the changing climate is a major UK infrastructure priority, and must be supported as such by the Treasury.

Building new homes. New homes should be built to be low-carbon, energy and water efficient, and climate resilient.

Finance and funding. There are urgent funding gaps which must be addressed, including secure UK Government funding for low-carbon sources of heating beyond 2021, and better resources for local authorities.

Retrofitting in the West Midlands currently fares no better. There are an estimated 235,512 fuel poor homes in the West Midlands, the highest rate of fuel poverty in any English region at 17.5%, with some areas experiencing much higher rates of over 40%.Over half of neighbourhoods in the West Midlands are in the bottom 20% when it comes to fuel poverty, nearly three times the national average in terms of fuel poverty. 

A 2023  analysis of the WMCA and its retrofitting plans by Richard Hatcher published by Red Green Labour can be read here. 

Useful links and resources for retrofitting in the West Midlands can be found here.

Advice on the provision of Home Upgrade Grants is available here.