ESG for Social Housing – Consultation response

Written in response to a consultation on UK Social Housing: Building a sector standard approach for ESG reporting.

To the ESG team,

I welcome the opportunity to respond to this consultation on approach and ESG criteria for social housing. I am Dr Sophie Taysom of Keyah Consulting. Keyah Consulting provides commercial benefit to clients through combining policy and trend insights, specialising at the intersection of health and care and the built environment.

General Comments on ESG for Social Housing

I welcome the ambition to establish a set of consistent ESG criteria so the social housing sector can deliver an approach to ESG reporting which can be widely adopted. This will be essential for the social housing sector, as well as others, in securing investment going forward.

While very much recognising the need for new affordable and high quality housing, my comments focus on the potential use of ESG to incentivise investments in refurbishing existing housing stock. Lockdown during COVID-19 has shined a spotlight on the detrimental effect of substandard housing  on mental and physical health. This impact will only become more significant as we enter the winter months with the expectation of further local lockdowns.

The investment challenges for refurbishment are well rehearsed.  What is clear is the recently announced £2bn Green Home voucher scheme will be insufficient to meet carbon reduction targets and refurbish enough homes to make a long lasting impact on people’s lives at a population health level.

The criteria

I very much welcome the draft criteria. It establishes a clear and standardised set of metrics to identify where social housing providers are maximising their impact, as well as where further improvements could be made.

On the ecology metrics, I read these as very much having the potential to act as improvement metrics.  I would welcome the addition of a question as to if the housing provider has a strategy to improve EPC ratings for existing and new homes.

The rationale is that ensuring homes are energy efficient would not only lead to reductions in carbon emissions but could go some way to addressing the significant issue of fuel poverty and improve health and wellbeing within the home. This could also help in the development of business cases for investments into retrofitting homes.

I very much look forward to seeing the finalised set of metrics as well as how they are utilised going forward.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Sophie Taysom

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