News

The publication of the 6^th edition of RITTERWALD’s Sustainable Housing Outlook coincides with the European Federation for Living (EFL) semi-annual conference in the city of Leeds in northern England. This EFL conference is kindly hosted by Places for People, the UK’s leading social enterprise in managing more than 245,000 social and affordable homes. This edition does address different aspects of retrofitting social housing stock to meet national climate goals in a timely manner. The decarbonisation of the housing stock in Europe is also the main theme of this EFL Conference. We have provided a pan-European outlook on retrofit, with a primary focus on featuring the host country, the UK.

The conference takes place now that the UK Labour Government has presented its first Autumn Statement on October 30, 2024, where the Chancellor announced the rent settlement of CPI plus 1% in first instance for the next 5 years among other measures that affect the delivery and retrofit of social and affordable housing. Government has announced major changes in social housing policy such as building 1.5 million homes in the next 5 years to be anchored in a New National Planning Policy Framework and a new generation New Towns. Also relevant is the recent launch of the National Wealth Fund with total capitalisation of £27.8bn expected to mobilise £70.0bn in private investments in the government’s industrial strategy, clean energy, and economic growth mission. It is an expansion of the offer of the UK Infrastructure Bank also including housing retrofit. This shows the renewed commitment to the low carbon economy which should keep decarbonisation pathways on track for EPC C in 2030.

Last September the long-awaited EU-commissioned report from former ECB President Mario Draghi was published. The report shows the outlook on the EU economy and calls for the urgent need for innovations and subsequent major long-lasting investments: also welcomed in the building industry. And the re-elected President of the European Commission, Ursula van der Leyen, introduced an EU Commissioner for Energy and Housing in her team. Although housing provision is a primary responsibility of the individual EU countries, the new Commissioner may support the agreed upon national roadmaps for decarbonisation of housing stock.