Building retrofit programme

What we want to achieve

With our estate

We will set up a plan to improve the efficiency of council-owned properties, known as ‘retrofitting’. Retrofitting is the addition of new technology or features to an old system. So rather than entirely replacing something, you improve it instead. This is often the more sustainable option, as it requires less energy and resources to replace a small section, rather than the entire system.

We will establish a strategy to ensure that the 3,000 homes owned by the council comply with national targets set by central government.

Area-wide

Work with residents and landlords to ensure that appropriate standards for rented homes are achieved. And support residents and business to improve the energy efficiency in their properties.

How we will do this

We have set out a range of actions for how Medway can respond to the climate emergency. These range from actions that the council will take to lead by example, to those that will support the community to act.

In our Refreshed Climate Change Action Plan, we highlighted 15 actions that are a priority to support our journey to net-zero. The following actions are marked as a priority:

 

house with plant in chimney icon

Develop plans to ensure that all council housing stock meet the national and government targets for energy standards.

sun and solar panel icon

Identify and deliver priority actions for key buildings via the Re:fit Energy Efficiency and Low Carbon Programme. To include:

  • building management systems - heating controls
  • energy efficient appliances
  • LED lighting corporate
  • water use reduction and conservation
  • conversion of existing heating systems to low carbon heat pumps or equivalent across the estate
  • solar PV
  • LED lighting housing (communal areas only). Delivery of this aspect will be long term.

street light icon

Complete the low energy LED smart street lighting upgrade programme.

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Carry out a full condition survey of lighting in car parks to inform energy efficiency standards and requirements for LED replacement programme.  

Our progress so far

  • During the summer of 2024, we partnered with the University of Greenwich and Kent County Council to host a series of events to provide impartial advice on domestic retrofitting. The free information sessions aimed to help residents enhance their understanding of retrofit measures to become more energy efficient and create healthier homes. Feedback from attendees is currently being used to shape our partnership offerings for 2025. These events built upon a series of successful domestic retrofit events that we delivered in collaboration with the partnership in Kent and Medway in 2023. This partnership is made possible through the University of Greenwich’s Knowledge Exchange programme.
  • Through the promotion of the Green Homes Grant, we supported 137 households to sign up for energy efficiency grants in Medway.
  • The Sustainable Warmth Scheme was opened in 2022, a government grant to support households to make their households more energy efficient. 80 households were signed up by March 2022.
  • We work with Medway’s letting agents to ensure compliance with Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards.  During 2022 and 2023, 14 letting agents were not showing energy performance certificate (EPC) information properly in their property adverts. We have provided them with advice on maintaining information about their properties and are checking to ensure the information is updated.
  • Work is underway on our buildings to develop and implement phase one of Re:fit. This is our energy efficiency programme for council-owned buildings.
  • We publish a Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA) report every 2 years. Medway Council’s latest HECA report was published in 2019 and reflects our commitment to the Kent Environment Strategy. It also identifies the actions Landlord Services will take to increase energy efficiency.
  • We have published our Statement of Intent (SOI) in relation to the government’s Energy Company Obligation (ECO): Help to Heat funding, part of the Affordable Warmth programme. The SOI sets out how we intend to identify households who could be eligible for the funding. Read the SOI.
  • We have replaced 3,984 streetlights with LED lamps. A new central management system (Telensa’s PLANet) allows us to switch the lights on and off and dim them, where necessary, giving us better control over energy consumption.

Energy rating improvements

We have also completed an exercise to understand the current energy rating of council owned homes.

See below the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating for each of our buildings.

EPC rating Number Percentage of total
A 0 0%
B 135 4.41%
C 2,143 70.08%
D 731 23.9%
E 26 0.85%
F 2 0.07%
G 1 0.03%
None 20 0.65%
Total 3,058 100%

We're continuing to carry out assessments and will update the ratings when we receive them.

We have also measured how much it will cost to retrofit all council owned homes to EPC rating C by 2030.

In March 2023, we received more than £1million from the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to improve the energy efficiency of 190 properties.  

We'll match the funding which means that more than £2million will be spent on delivering upgrades such as loft insulation and LED lighting.  

Works have started on the first phase of 85 properties, which are due to be completed by mid-September 2024. The second phase is being developed, with an expected completion date of March 2025. 

Find out more about how we are improving energy ratings in council houses.

Read all the actions

To read all the actions in our plan:

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