The social housing sector could take the lead in delivering warmer, more energy efficient homes while creating 77,000 green jobs across Northern England, new research has revealed.

The Northern Housing Consortium’s (NHC) report – Warm Homes, Green Jobs: Meeting the Net Zero challenge in the North – launched this week at the Labour Party conference.

The new government has pledged to invest an extra £6.6 billion over the next parliament for energy efficiency upgrades in five million homes, and has this week announced that it will consult on a proposal for all rented homes to achieve EPC C by 2030.

NHC’s research found that, with the right government investment, social housing providers will be able to boost the supply chain so it can deliver more energy efficiency upgrades for homeowners and the private rented sector.

The report calls for:

  • Long-term consistent funding to decarbonise social housing. This will give contractors and housing providers the long-term certainty to invest in energy efficiency upgrades. To deliver at the right scale, £500 million per year is needed in the North up to 2030, and £1 billion per year in the North up to 2035
  • Further devolution of funding so that mayoral combined authorities can take a lead delivering energy efficiency in their area, meeting the needs of local communities. In areas which do not have a devolution deal, net zero hubs could take on this role in partnership with local authorities
  • Growth of a sustainable and inclusive workforce through local partnerships. These partnerships will tackle skills gaps using devolved adult education funding. Social landlords are key partners because of their unique insight as large construction and retrofit employers, anchor institutions in communities, and organisations with extensive experience of supporting residents into sustainable employment.

Tracy Harrison, NHC Chief Executive, said: “There are nearly a million households in the North living in fuel poverty. Investing in energy efficiency improvements will significantly bring this number down, as well as playing a big role in helping us reach net zero by 2050.

“The social housing sector owns 1.3 million homes in the North. It is the only housing tenure that has the organisational scale to significantly boost the supply chain and create thousands of new jobs. Investment in social housing is key to getting the infrastructure in place to roll out more energy efficiency upgrades to the private rented sector and homeowners.”