Practical tools and resources

Practical solutions for zero carbon homes

Recorded 28 November 2022, this webinar explores a range of practical best practice on retrofitting homes, low carbon new builds, working with residents and tech solutions for net zero.

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund - Wave 2 briefing

During a webinar on 5 August 2022, we discussed the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund with speakers from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Turner & Townsend Advisory. They talked us through the latest guidance from BEIS and other information related to putting together a bid. 

Decarbonisation - board members meeting

Recorded 21 July 2022, this webinar on decarbonisation for housing association chairs shares the latest policy updates on decarbonisation including an update on Wave 2 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. It also includes the latest information on best practices across the sector from funding net zero, boosting carbon literacy at board level and engaging customers.

Smaller housing associations and the road to zero carbon

Recorded 20 June 2022, this webinar explores the issues raised in a new decarbonisation briefing for smaller housing associations, including support and funding.

Electric heat pumps

Electric heat pumps are likely to be the dominant solution to how we green our homes. During this webinar, recorded 10 February 2022, we discussed the following:

• What are heat pumps and how do they work?
• Why have they emerged as the dominant solution for zero carbon housing?
• What will the impact on tenants be?
• Are heat pumps the answer for all homes?
• Are they an affordable solution?

What is the cost of making our homes zero carbon and how can this be funded?

This webinar recorded 4 November 2021 features representatives from Savills, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and Turner and Townsend.

How can we as a sector navigate our way to net zero?

Recorded 7 October 2021, this webinar reviewed one of the key parts of the NHF decarbonisation project. 

Funding for green retrofitting

During this webinar in March 2021, we heard directly from the government about funding opportunities for green retrofit work on housing association properties, focusing on plans for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

Social Housing Retrofit Accelerator

We highly recommend the work of the Social Housing Retrofit Accelerator that has been supporting social housing providers to access and deploy the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and they cover both strategic and practical skills. They have a series of podcasts, webinars and a knowledge hub which includes EDI in Retrofit toolkit designed to support equality, diversity, and inclusion within organisations developing and delivering social housing retrofit projects. More resources are released regularly.

Northern Housing Consortium

The Northern Housing Consortium have also brought together a useful set of practical and strategic resources to draw upon.

Residents’ voices in the net zero journey

Communication is key if social landlords are to deliver the decarbonisation agenda say PlaceShapers and Tpas.

Social housing tenants' climate jury

The Northern Housing Consortium and partners have launched a first of its kind Tenants’ Jury to understand how tenants, social housing providers and others can work together to tackle climate change in our homes and neighbourhoods.

Social Housing Toolkit

A practical guide from the Retrofit Academy CIC to help social landlords and local authorities deliver effective retrofit measures that will benefit all you and your tenants and deliver warm, comfy, and efficient homes for all.

Climate action: energy, planning and housing

The Local Government Association (LGA) collates best practice case studies of local authority climate action, often including work to local authority homes which housing associations may find useful.

Hard to decarbonise social homes

NHF members have told us they are concerned about homes that may be especially hard or even impossible to decarbonise. This might be because the measures required are uneconomic, logistically or technically troublesome, or the impact of those measures on residents or others is unacceptable. This report examines why some social homes are harder to decarbonise than others.

Heritage and traditional homes

A recurring challenge for housing associations when it comes to decarbonisation is the difficulty of retrofitting heritage and traditional homes. We've rounded up of some of the key information and practical guidance for retrofitting heritage and traditional homes.

Zurich Municipal whitepaper - The Sustainability Shift: Places

What does sustainability mean to you and your organisation? And where are you on your sustainability journey? The latest Zurich Municipal whitepaper, The Sustainability Shift: Places, shines the spotlight on sustainability and how it is central to building and maintaining progressive and resilient communities.

Carbon jargon

The language of carbon and energy can be complicated and different people can use the same phrase to mean different things. This glossary of carbon and energy related terms from the NHBC Foundation is a clear glossary of carbon and energy related terms that aims to provide a concise and common vocabulary for the house-building sector.