Yorkshire Housing will increase its investment by over a third, spending around £108 million on home improvements, as part of its five-year asset management strategy. This will see an average investment of £21.6 million a year from 2023-2028, up from £15.7 million a year during the previous five years.
The investment will include £42 million on kitchen and bathroom renewals, £36 million on external elements like roofs and walls, £18 million on energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon heating solutions, and £12 million on replacing older gas boilers with new, more energy efficient models.
Central to the strategy is the development of a Yorkshire Housing Home Standard that goes above and beyond the Government’s Decent Homes Standard, which sets the minimum regulatory and legislative standards that social homes in England and Northern Ireland are required to meet.
The Yorkshire Housing Home Standard, which will be designed with feedback from customers, will focus on exceeding regulatory safety standards, using high quality products, improving customer choice and delivering more pre-emptive services. The Standard will also include a range of elements that will help customers transition to a low carbon future, including energy efficient heating systems and electric vehicle charging points.
There will also be a drive to improve information about the condition of homes by using a range of smart home technology including sensors to monitor the performance of boilers, and to measure things like levels of humidity and temperature which will help to proactively identify and address any potential problems with damp and mould early on.
Despite a number of recently proposed changes to the Government’s roadmap to net-zero, Yorkshire Housing remains committed to improving the energy efficiency of its least efficient homes by 2030.
Steve Ellard, Director of Assets and Sustainability at Yorkshire Housing said:
“The main aim of this strategy is to create homes and places to be proud of, places that are fit for the future and where our customers want to live. Over the next five years, it will help us lay the foundations towards making better informed decisions about our homes, improving the service we offer our customers and delivering value for money.
“Moving toward more efficient and pre-emptive services also aligns with our commitment to reducing our impact on the environment, which is key theme of the strategy. Our 16,500 homes across Yorkshire produce 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year and we plan to get that number to zero by 2050, and make sure all our homes have a minimum energy performance rating of SAP Band C by 2030.
"To do this, over the next five years we’ll focus heavily on replacing oil and solid fuel heating systems with low carbon solutions like air source heat pumps, as well as making improvements to the fabric of our buildings such as improving insulation, which will reduce our customers’ energy consumption and help to tackle fuel poverty.”
The Yorkshire Housing Active Asset Management Strategy runs from April 2023 to March 2028.