Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Housing Conference in Harrogate today, Kim Penfold, Group Director – New Business and Partnership for Harvest Housing Group outlined what housing associations and other registered social landlords (RSLs) need to do about environmental sustainability and what help they need from the Government to deliver change on a scale which will make a real difference.
Kim Penfold said:
“This is important. We need to show commitment and we need practical plans to deliver change. The time for pilot schemes and gimmicks is past. We need to deliver on a large enough scale to make a real difference.”
Penfold said the environment is important to RSL tenants and Harvest’s tenants had already endorsed the Group’s Key Business Objective on sustainability.
The Government is pushing RSLs to deliver Code for Sustainable Homes standards faster than house builders who claim there is market resistance.
Penfold called on Government to take action given that house builders’ annual production is so much higher than RSLs:
“Boosting the scale of delivery at higher standards will bring economies which will benefit RSLs and their tenants as well as house builders and their purchasers.
“But new-build in any year is bound to be a very small proportion of our total stock. To make a real impact, which benefits the bulk of our tenants we need to raise standards in the existing stock. The Government’s Decent Homes Standard has speeded up improvement in the social housing sector but there is still a lot to do. Government could help us make real progress here by giving a 2 per cent relaxation in the Rent Influencing rules which currently limit RSL rent increases to RPI + 2%. Tenants would still be better off because of the savings on their fuel bills.”