Ark is supporting Scottish Housing Day 2022

Scottish Housing Day is back for the seventh year and will take place on Wednesday 14 September 2022 with a focus on sustainable housing.

The day is intended to raise awareness of challenges and successes in the housing sector and raise people’s awareness of their housing options.

With the Scottish Government setting out its intention to develop a new housing standard later in this Parliament, agreeing the concept and principles that underpin sustainable housing is crucial.

This year’s Scottish Housing Day will encourage everyone to think about the core components of sustainability and will signpost tenants and residents to sources of advice, information and support.

What is sustainability and why does it matter?

Houses are responsible for 13% of Scotland’s emissions which means, in order to meet our ambitious net-zero targets, we need to make big changes to the energy efficiency of our homes.

When we discuss sustainability, we are talking about homes that are environmentally sustainable and will support our net zero ambition, economically sustainable in that we use only the required resources to build and the home does not require excessive levels of maintenance ongoing maintenance, and social sustainability in that the homes support and build social cohesion and improve the housing outcomes for those living in them. By focusing on sustainability, we can set out high minimum standards for quality, energy-efficient homes in communities that thrive and supporting our collective ambition for housing.

Scotland’s Heat in Buildings strategy is aiming for 1 million homes to have zero emissions heating by 2030. This means significant scaling up of zero emissions heating installations, focusing on rolling out heat pumps and heat networks.

Fossil fuel boilers will be phased out from 2025 in off-gas grid areas and 2030 in on-gas grid areas, and support for fossil fuel systems is already being phased out from Scottish Government programmes.

Ark and Sustainable Housing

Ark are currently building 20 new homes in Livingston, West Lothian, all will achieve zero direct emissions heating, in line with Housing to 2040 targets. This will have significant benefits for our customers as well as ensuring Ark work towards our net zero ambitions. These properties will also have design features which will make them more accessible and more readily adapted to change to suit the changing needs of our customers and being economically sustainable for the future

Ark have entered into a long term partnership with Warmworks as we work towards our energy efficient targets. Warmworks is a joint venture between Energy Saving Trust (EST), Everwarm and Changeworks and since its inception in 2015, it has managed the Scottish Government’s flagship £224m fuel poverty programme, Warmer Homes Scotland, in the role of Managing Agent. Warmworks will carry out an energy efficiency survey of all our stock in the forthcoming months and design a proposal for each property to achieve our targets to make sure our stock can be as energy efficient as possible.

Pilot Energy Project

A project commenced earlier this year when we submitted a funding bid via Warmworks from the Scottish Governments Net Zero Heat Fund for replacing the communal heating system and shared metering at 4 flats located at Hoseason Gardens Edinburgh. This project was submitted under 2 themes detailed below:

Theme 1 – Zero Emission Heating Systems for Social Housing across Scotland

Theme 2 – “Fabric First” Energy Efficiency only Projects

The properties are currently serviced by an inefficient communal boiler that is insufficient for the heating and hot water needs of the households, with shared metering presenting billing issues for tenants. As well as communicating the difficulties presented in adequately heating their homes, affected tenants have conveyed the challenges they face in accurately recording meter readings, causing concern over potential for energy consumption to be underreported to suppliers, creating the risk of hidden energy debt becoming apparent at a later date. The proposed scope is intended to remove these challenges by providing tenants with an efficient renewable heating system while providing tenants with the ability to make further savings through the generation and storage of energy. Insulation measures at the properties was also include for upgrading to ensure we apply a fabric first approach when considering energy efficiency works.

Annual House Visits

The housing team are arranging house visits to all of Ark tenants the aim to get more information on individual situations in the hope to be able to offer targeted advice.