Articles

Housing associations have a pivotal part to play in supporting the UK’s journey to net-zero but further change is needed if we’re going to get there.

The UK has some of the most energy leaking housing in Europe, much of it built in the pre-war period.

According to the National Housing Federation the UK’s 29million homes produce 58.5million tonnes of CO2 every year. That’s more than the CO2 produced annually by all car journeys.

The population of the United Kingdom is approximately 67 million people. If we all continue as we are, climate change will get worse. But, reducing our own energy consumption, even if only slightly, would result in a significant reduction in our nation’s carbon emissions. Taking control of our energy consumption and lowering our personal emissions is a great step towards ensuring the sustainability of our planet for future generations. Housing Association Magazine’s Joe Bradbury discusses:

As April is National Stress Awareness Month, Charis business development director, Ollie Gray, underlines the importance of flexibility, speed and efficiency in alleviating the effects of the financial crisis that is hitting individual households across the UK.

From January 23, 2023 all firefighter and evacuation lifts in high rise residential buildings are now subject to an additional new monthly check. Lee Dean director of LECS UK looks at the implications and new responsibilities for owners/ managers of high-rise buildings
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry noted in the Phase 1 report that “When the firefighters attended the fire at Grenfell Tower, they were unable to operate the mechanism that should have allowed them to take control of the lifts.”
The Inquiry recommended that the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to carry out regular inspections of any lifts that are designed to be used by firefighters and to report these results to the fire and rescue service at monthly intervals.  They are also required to undertake tests of the mechanism that allows firefighters to take control of the lifts and to inform the fire rescue service monthly that they have undertaken.

There are 282,000 people currently classed as homeless in the UK, according to the national charity for homeless people, Crisis1. To help tackle this, award-winning housebuilder The Hill Group set out a mission to donate 200 purpose-built modular homes that would provide people experiencing periods of homelessness with fully equipped, safe and secure single dwellings to live in before finding a permanent home.

Having cultivated a collaborative working relationship with Hill for several years, Vaillant specified and installed six of its aroTHERM air source heat pump units to Hill’s SoloHaus development in South Tottenham, London to help with the heating and hot water needs.

WMS underfloor heating is proud to announce its involvement in delivering national housebuilder Bellway’s latest carbon reduction research project, The Future Home @ The University of Salford, which aims to address domestic energy efficiency challenges by putting low-carbon technologies to the test.
 
The developer’s experimental eco home has been constructed within one of two environmental chambers inside Energy House 2.0, this collaborative project between Bellway Homes and other partners, including The University of Salford, Barratt Developments and Saint-Gobain.

Energy House 2.0 is a unique £16 million research facility, part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and is playing a pivotal role in accelerating the progress towards low carbon and net zero housing design and builds.

Heat pump manufacturer, Mitsubishi Electric, is calling on the construction industry to come together to address the UK’s need to quickly transition to low carbon heating – as it launches what it believes is the widest range of commercial and residential heat pumps on the market.

Achieving the Government’s ambitious target of 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028 will require a tenfold increase in the number of installations over the next five years. This presents a significant opportunity for businesses throughout the supply chain to help customers in the transition to low-carbon heating.