English Housing Survey highlights warm homes challenge

This month, MHCLG published the Energy Report from the most recent English Housing Survey (EHS) of 2023 and gives us a detailed insight into the condition of the nation’s homes and our progress on fuel poverty and decarbonisation.

Run by MHCLG, the EHS is the largest and longest running housing survey, now 56 years old. It currently represents nearly 14,000 household interviews and 6,500 property inspections.

There is a wealth of data split by tenure so we can deep dive into the progress of housing associations compared with other tenures.

Energy efficiency

The EHS measures homes by the official Energy Efficiency Rating, which can be translated into the equivalent bands of A to G used in Energy Performance Certificates (EPC).

For the UK to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, it’s necessary to decarbonise the nation’s homes – including social homes. That means better insulation and a transition to ‘clean heat’, which will also combat fuel poverty.

The most widely used measure of home energy efficiency is EPC C certificate. The government has an ambition to upgrade five million homes as part of its Warm Homes Plan by 2030.

The latest results show a dramatic improvement in the energy efficiency of homes in England in recent years. The number of homes below EPC C has gone down by 5.3 million since 2012. In 2023, nearly half of homes (48.0%) were at EPC C or above, compared with only 19.3% in 2012. Just 9.4% of homes were in the least energy efficient bands (E, F, and G), down from nearly a third (30.0%) in 2012. However, that still leaves 13.1 million homes potentially needing an insulation upgrade.

Proportion of homes in England in EPC bands A to G

Housing associations are leading the way on the drive to upgrade homes, with the highest proportion (72%) in EPC band C or better (up from 40.1% in 2012). This compares with private rented homes where fewer than half (44.9%) are EPC C or better, (though that is up from 20.1% in 2012).

Proportion of homes in England with EPC rating C or better

Housing associations have upgraded just over 500,000 homes since 2012. But despite this success, the EHS also shows us the scale of the challenge ahead – with around 715,000 or 28.1% of housing association homes needing more work to meet EPC C by 2030. Based on the pace of the last 10 years, we would need to nearly double our current rate of progress to meet this target.

Homes below energy rating EPC C

The clean heat challenge

But insulation is only part of the story. Heating systems are critical and the EHS helpfully provides some data here too. As you might expect, most housing association homes (90.6%) have central heating, and 80.4% now have condensing boilers with higher energy efficiency. This is ahead of the private rented sector where 85.4% of homes have central heating and 72.2% have condensing boilers.

There are 241,000 (9.4%) of housing association homes without central heating and the majority of those (187,000) are heated mostly by storage heaters. There are 54,000 (2.1%) of housing association homes heated with fixed/portable room heaters (the least efficient type of heating). But this is ahead of the private rented sector where 7.2% of homes are heated by fixed/portable room heaters.

To truly decarbonise housing and deliver warmer, cheaper heating to residents, millions of homes will need to be upgraded to clean heating systems like heat pumps and decarbonised heat networks.

According to the EHS, heat networks supply 121,000 housing association homes, nearly a quarter of all the homes supplied by heat networks in England. This type of heating is used in 4.7% of housing association homes, slightly ahead of the proportion in private rented homes (3.4%).

There are 37,000 housing association homes with heat pumps. This is only a small proportion of housing association homes (1.4%). But it is far more than the private rented sector where the numbers were too small to report.

The government’s Climate Change Committee argues that by 2028, approximately 10% of existing homes in the UK will need to be heated by a heat pump, compared to only about 1% today. The majority of these installations will need to be in existing buildings and social housing will be a priority. Additionally, forthcoming regulation by Ofgem designed to improve and scale up heat networks is expected to have a big impact on housing associations.

Type of heating in homes, 2022

The task ahead for housing associations

Results from the latest EHS demonstrate impressive progress by housing associations on improving the energy efficiency of their residents’ homes – but there is much still to do. We need to double annual progress on insulation, working in partnership with the government on their Warm Homes Plan, to upgrade a further 716,000 homes currently below EPC C. Our Social Housing Renewal Plan sets out how we can do this and we have a strong track record to build upon.

Alongside that, what the EHS data makes clear is that we need also to turn our heads toward the forthcoming challenge of clean heat. The data shows again that housing associations are leading the way but to really change gear, a range of policy changes including energy pricing shifts, public information campaigns, supply chain and workforce development and funding is necessary.