APSE Presentation

Best Housing and Regeneration Initiative

Nick Huston - 10 March 2015

Objectives

• This presentation will cover the following areas:

– Non traditional properties, case study

– How we have maximised external funding to help fund work

– What renewable energy schemes we have completed, and have planned

– Other exciting projects

• Established in April 2006

• Arm’s Length Management Organisation (ALMO) for South Tyneside Council

• Manage the Council stock of 18,000 properties

• Head office, 5 Housing Offices, main depot and associated buildings/offices

• 650 staff (300 core services and 350 Property Services)

• Decent Homes due to complete end 2016

South Tyneside Homes

Non-traditional Properties

• 1,860 non-traditional properties in the borough:• Majority are Shepherd, Crosswall, Myton, Wimpey No Fine,

Tarran Newland and High Rises

• Also have Unity, BISF, Hawthorn Leslie, Cussins, Tarran Dorran, Spooner and Hebburn Concrete

• Improvement programme for some archetypes 2010-2013 funded through CESP & ERDF

• Complex work programme – resource and time intensive

• Over 1,000 properties completed to date

• 330 currently out to tender – part ECO funded

• 465 ‘Crosswall’ properties – in decent homes programme

Case Study

• Biddick Hall, South Shields Project –

• transformed 357 homes

• Non traditional properties – Mytons and Wimpey-no-Fines

• Poorly insulated, excessive fuel costs

• What we did:

• Complete refurbishment programme

• Reduced carbon emissions by 1,821 tons per year

• Significant fuel savings

Background• The Biddick Hall estate was built in 1946, designed as a

low cost solution to the housing crisis after the war

• Designed to only last 15 years, they had no insulation value, which caused our tenants excessive fuel costs to heat their homes

• Demolition was considered, but as these properties were good sized properties in well established communities, funding was sought to retain and refurbish them

Background• Two house types on Biddick Hall:

• Wimpey-no-Fines – Solid concrete structure, ‘no-fines’ refers to the type of concrete used - concrete with no fine aggregates. Produced by the George Wimpey company, these properties have no cavity wall insulation

• Mytons – concrete slab section construction, which were clamped together with no cavity wall insulation

Measures Installed:

• External wall insulation

• Repair existing roofs, new roof line and RW goods

• Install A rated double-glazed windows & composite doors

• Install internal cavity insulation (Myton only)

• Renew/upgrade loft insulation

• Install A rated high efficiency gas combi boiler

• Full internal Decent Homes internal package

• Solar PV panels were also installed on approx 200 properties

Wimpey no Fines

Concrete houses with structural steelwork

External preparations

External insulation applications

Immediate benefits

Render and cladding Installation

A transformed street that has made a clear difference to residents living in their homes

Myton

Thermal image of a typical Myton property before insulation application

Construction of storey height precast reinforced concrete panels

Preparations for external work

Progress on Internal Insulation work

Internal insulation

Efficient “A“ rated boiler

installation

Applying the finished render system

External Insulation

What a difference this work has made to the quality of life

for residents living in their homes

Regeneration and Decent Homes work complete

Challenges• Decanting 223 tenants was by far the biggest challenge

• Delivering the work to 134 homes while our tenants lived in them was also difficult

• 5 week work programme, huge drain on resources, and traumatic times for our residents

• We used 87 decant houses, all within the area, and we had to hold voids for 12 months previously to get the decant properties we needed

• We had a large Decant team who assisted tenants moving in and out of their homes, including CLO’s, Repairs staff, TV/BT/Sky engineers, removal specialists, carpet fitters, and cleaning companies.

Benefits• Reduction in energy bills of up to £800 per household,

following the work

• Full retention and refurbishment of 357 previously unsustainable non traditional homes

• Regeneration of the estate and community

• Reduced repairs and maintenance costs

• Customer satisfaction for the work – 9.8 out of 10

... and after

Before...

External Funding

• Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP)– Worked in partnership with SSE– Over 800 non trad properties in total received CESP funding– External funding secured of £5.5 million

• European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)– Funded work delivered to 3 high rise blocks in Jarrow– Funded external insulation work to 136 Tarran Newland non

traditional properties, including the installation of Solar PV– Work took place over a 2 year period – 2011-13– 250 households benefitting from a much warmer home– External funding secured of £1.3 million

High Rise Flats

• Three 11-storey blocks

• 132 properties (44 per block)

• 1 and 2 bedroom flats

• Built in the 1960s

• Located in Jarrow town centre

Photo credit: www.geolocation.ws

Constructed of reinforced concrete floors and load-bearing brick panels. The brickwork was rendered in the early 1980s.

Measures Installed:

• External wall insulation

• Double-glazed windows (self-cleaning!)

• Solar PV panels and CHP were planned but not installed following a technical feasibility study

• Full Decent Homes internal package

• Replacement of Elson tanks with heat exchange units on district heating system

• Replacement front doors to individual flats

• New lifts, lighting and re-decoration to communal areas

Work In Progress

... and afterBefore...

Photo credit: www.skyscrapercity.com

Delivering Low Carbon Technologies

• South Tyneside Homes are committed to the installation of low carbon technologies:

– Installed nearly 700 renewable energy measures over the last 4 years including Solar PV, Air Source Heat Pumps, and Solar Thermal systems

– Incorporated low carbon technologies into mainstream Decent Homes programmes

– Secured new levels of income

– All work to make homes warmer and reduce tenants fuel bills

Renewable projects

• Delivered our first air source heat pump scheme in 2010 –replacing gas ducted air systems with Daikin heat pumps to 50 properties

• Installed Solar Thermal panels to 44 properties, all in conjunction with heat pumps – in 2010 & 2012.

• Installed Ground Source heat pumps to 4 new build bungalows in 2011

• Installed over 260 Solar PV systems to new build and existing properties – 2011/12

• Installed 91 Mitsubishi heat pumps during 2012

Renewable projects - continued

• Installed 230 Solar PV systems to existing properties in 2014

• Currently installing 20 Daikin Hybrid heat pumps

• Due to start with 2015 Solar PV programme to 250 properties

• Should hit 1,000 renewables during 2015

External Funding for Renewables

• £182,000 from BRE for heat pump project (2010/11)– Low Carbon Building Programme fund

• £216,000 from British Gas for 3 heat pump projects (2012)– Customer Led Network Revolution fund

• £55,000 from DECC for renewable energy projects (2012)– Renewable Heat Premium Payment fund

• £225,000 income through FIT for 20-25 years• Tenants should save between £100 - £150 on their fuel

bills

Energy Efficiency projects

• DECC - Fuel Poverty Fund – £95,000– Heating and insulation work– Work took place January - March 2013– Secured additional ECO funding through Warm Zone

• DECC – Collective Switching Fund –£20,500– South Tyneside Switch Project run between Jan – March 2013– Temporary Energy Officer appointed– Objective to reduce residents fuel bills– 1,416 South Tyneside residents took part– Mixed results

Green Deal Demonstration Project

• We’re part of Warm up North• DECC made available some go early Green Deal funding

that would fund demonstration projects aimed to test the green deal principals.

• WuN bid and was successful in receiving £1.23m funding, including £195,000 for STC/STH

• We also negotiated £112,000 from British Gas ECO funding

• Work to 16 private properties (non trads) in Biddick Hall• Work completed end of March 2013

ECO funding• Currently working on several ECO schemes:

• Cavity wall replacement scheme at the Lonnen (215 properties) completed in October 2014 – £74,000 ECO contribution – 57% of the cost of the work– A second phase is currently out to tender (200 properties)

• An insulation scheme at Greenbank is out to tender• Expected to be 100% ECO funded• 46 properties, cavity wall insulation

• 350 non trads are also going out to tender soon, requiring external wall insulation and other thermal measures• Significant sums of ECO funding estimated

Tackling Fuel Poverty• In House Energy Training

– In January 2014 secured £4,700 from DECC’s Big Energy Fund

– Training took place between January – May 2014

– Delivered training to 170 staff and 40 involved tenants.

– Training includes:• Why Energy Efficiency is important

• What is Fuel Poverty and what can we do to help alleviate it

• Learn about different heating systems and how peoples behaviour effects their use

• Learn about the major types of dampness in the home and what can be done to prevent it

• How to take accurate meter readings

• Secured a further £5,000 from DECC for 2015

What’s next?

• Renewable Heat Incentive – Launched for the domestic /RSL sector in 2014– Provide payments for renewable measures including heat pumps,

biomass boilers and solar thermal panels– Payments made over a 7 year period– May be a good funding source for all future renewable energy

schemes– All legacy installations from July 2009 are included, so we can

claim for around 200 measures installed since this time– Some grants that we received will be offset from RHI payments,

but it will still be worth claiming for – estimated income £200,000 – Legacy claims can be made up to 8 April 2015, so this process has

started

Green Deal Training

• In November 2014, STH received the certification to become a Green Deal Advice Service– 6 members of staff currently undergoing training to become

Assessors - 2 members of staff have already passed – STH can now carry out full Green Deal Assessments in house

• A further 14 members of staff will receive Domestic Energy Assessor training between Nov 14 – March 15.– This will allow STH to carry out EPC’s in house– EPC’s are required for all new lettings– Also required for all ‘green’ funding claims, like FIT and RHI

What’s next?

• Energy Deal for Tenants– Installing measures and providing energy advice and training are

only part of the solution– We also want to ensure that our tenants have access to the best

and lowest energy tariffs available– Currently working on several options to provide a lower tariff for

our tenants– This includes working with our north east partners to set up our

own Energy Company – ESCO– We’re also working with OVO Energy to offer all new tenants an

opportunity to sign up for cheaper tariffs – due to be launched soon

What’s next?

• Community Energy Saving Competition– DECC scheme– 26 January 2015 – competition opened– 10 February 2015 – competition closed– 27 February 2015 – winners announced– 31 March 2015 – all work complete

– £20,000 secured– We’re planning on running a boroughwide energy survey to our

18,000 tenants – Target resources for all future energy work– Mixture of post, visits, text and email used to reach as many

people as possible

Any questions?

nick.huston@southtynesidehomes.org.uk0191 426 8338

www.apse.org.uk

Performance Trends in Building Maintenance

• Results from the most recent round of APSE benchmarking

• Discussion and analysis

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