The Existing Homes Alliance

Area of expertise: strategic advisory & policy

We helped establish the Existing Homes Alliance, which sets out the action required from businesses, housing and environmental organisations and government to put the UK housing stock on the road to deep cuts in carbon emissions and energy bills.

We helped develop the Declaration on the Future of Existing Housing as part of the Alliance. The Declaration has received backing from key companies and organisations across the range of sectors that it addresses. Within its Declaration, the Alliance has detailed a number of bold measures that it supports as part of a UK wide programme of action, including:

• A clear regulation timetable that takes account of measures such as enhanced building regulations, and minimum standards for household energy performance (based on the new Energy Performance Certificates)
• A greater range of financial incentives to encourage investment by homeowners, landlords and housing managers, including VAT reform on refurbishment, stamp duty and council tax rebates, low interest rate loans, feed in tariffs, grants and energy service packages
• A major programme of exemplar low energy refurbishments to help kick start the supply chain and drive innovation, investment and skills development. At least 500,000 homes should be targeted within five years and should include individual ‘exemplar’ houses within each local authority area as well as ‘whole street’ projects in areas of high fuel poverty concentration
• Trusted installer registers, mandatory training and up-skilling for building professionals to cover the full range of energy and resource efficient techniques, and badging to make the public aware of these skills, such as for CORGI and registered electrical installers
• A public information campaign to counter misconceptions among homeowners showing how to raise the environmental performance of their homes

"If we act now, and act decisively as a unified industry we can significantly reduce the impact that existing housing has on national CO2 emissions once and for all. This approach will ensure the UK can meet its international responsibilities while securing energy efficient and low carbon homes for future generations" Dave Worthington, Managing Director.

Verco recently helped to launch the Existing Homes Alliance Scotland. Further information can be found by clicking here

Related services

Existing housing

Verco has a recognised track record of leadership in existing homes, working on policy development and providing housing strategies to over 20 local authorities and registered providers. We have an intimate understanding of all relevant mechanisms to support low carbon measures.

EPLabel

We can give you our free software to help you produce and manage your building portfolio’s DEC.

Sustainability policy advisory

Verco “…offers good value for money and a great depth of expertise. It has the ability to link policy to technical expertise”.

Low carbon buildings

Low carbon building solutions for the refurbishment of existing properties and development of new-builds.

Related sectors

Property and infrastructure

For new buildings, there is a substantial energy performance gap experienced by clients between the energy use predicted by designers and the metered energy use for operation over a year.

Public sector

How can the public sector both realise significant reductions in energy cost and carbon emissions from its own operations?

Related projects

North London retrofit potential

Verco was commissioned on behalf of six North London boroughs to develop an area based retrofit action plan. This is one of the most thorough pieces of analysis on Green Deal opportunities, including the range of risks, values and delivery options for Local Authorities.

Affinity Sutton (FutureFit)

FutureFit is Affinity Sutton’s flagship project that aims to provide unique insights into how the Green Deal could work in social housing. Verco helped to show how low carbon activities can be mainstreamed to deliver significant energy and CO2 savings.

The Energy Bill Revolution

This mainstream campaign was commissioned by Transform UK, the Co-operative Group and Consumer Focus. Verco provided comprehensive analysis on Green Deal/ ECO opportunities and fuel poverty alleviation potential across the UK.

Whole house low carbon refurbishment

We investigated the potential for whole house low carbon refurbishment to deliver 80% carbon reductions in existing homes. The work involves identifying the whole package of carbon reduction measures that are required, the cost per house of installing all these measures, the key barriers to a whole house approach and the main policy instruments for delivery. Our research fed into the UK Government’s ‘Heat and Energy Saving Strategy’.

Northstowe: an exemplar of sustainability

Large, long term, phased developments such as the 9500 home Northstowe exemplar of sustainability pose critical challenges for the delivery of community energy systems due to the requirement for early investment in shared generation and distribution infrastructure set against uncertainty in the timing, value and size of the customer base and associated revenue streams.

Zero Carbon House

The Zero Carbon House is a low energy demonstration project to show how renewable energy can create a unique living experience on a remote island in a severe climate. A holistic approach has been taken to eliminating household carbon emissions that would normally result from heating and powering the home, running the family car and growing and transporting food.

Zero Carbon Development

Delivering low and zero carbon growth

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Expansion of pioneering biomass heating syste

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One Gallions

We helped Crest Nicholson BioRegional Quintain to secure this site in east London as part of the Mayor’s competition to build a flagship Zero Carbon development.

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Wembley City

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Middlehaven

Camco Advisory Services Ltd (CAS) helped BioRegional Quintain Ltd (BQL) to secure and develop this English Partnerships site in the North East. The team responded to a development brief that set stringent energy standards by proposing an exemplar highly sustainable community based on principles of Zero Carbon, Zero Waste and efficient use of water and materials.

London Energy Partnership - Energy Action Areas

Camco Advisory Services Ltd (CAS) was commissioned by the Greater London Authority, on behalf of the London Energy Partnership, to define and develop the concept of ‘Energy Action Areas’ for London. These were then translated into a workable programme of action to deliver results on the ground. We proposed that a series of pilot Energy Action Areas should be centered on large scale regeneration projects where there was momentum building upon and large scale energy infrastructure being established.

Heart of East Greenwich

Camco Advisory Services Ltd (CAS) worked in collaboration with BioRegional Consulting on a project for English Partnerships, now the Homes & Communities Agency investigating appropriate sustainability standards for a number of their developments, including the carbon neutral Heart of East Greenwich scheme.

Bath Western Riverside

Integrated sustainability in the South West