Agenda item

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any questions, representations or statements of case received in accordance with Council procedures.

The Director of Housing was present to respond to three questions submitted.

Mrs Zina Zelter was invited to the table to ask her questions.

1)    What is it that tenants do that make passivhaus homes not work well? Chris Burgin referred to this more than once at the last meeting, the implication being that it was a reason not to build passivhaus, and it would be helpful to know details.

Reply

The Director of Housing responded that it wasn’t a case of not building Passivhaus homes, but there were some issues the authority was aware of. Feedback received by officers had been anecdotal and related to the volume of fresh air generated by the internal system and the need to open windows, which in a fully sealed house was contradictory, even though it was accepted that people did this to maintain the internal comfort conditions.  It was noted that a meeting had been arranged with East Midlands Housing EMH) to talk to them about their experiences of managing and maintaining this type of construction, to hear of the feedback they had received from the tenants and to learn from this for future phases of council house building.

It had further been identified that the authority needed to generate 876 homes and Passivehaus building reduced the numbers of homes that could be built due to the design.

The Chair informed Ms Zelter that further clarification if required could be requested from officers.

2)    If council tenants want better insulation/energy efficiency measures on their homes can they request and would they get them? Specifically external wall insulation. Would that be something they could request and would they get it?

Reply

The Director of Housing replied that if tenants were concerned about the insulation levels in their homes they could contact Housing to request a visit. It was noted there was an annual budget which was spent increasing certain types of insulation, for example, loft insulation, double glazed windows could be added to the programme for replacement. If tenants were experiencing mould growth due to a potential cold bridge, it would be investigated and insulated. 

It was noted that external wall insulation was not fitted on request, but on a programmed basis and only prioritised the most poorly performing homes, primarily the ones with solid 9inch walls.  Two such programmes had been carried out in the past and externally insulated in excess of 1300 homes. All homes with a cavity had been filled with insulation.

The Chair informed Ms Zelter that further clarification if required could be requested from officers.

3)    When doing voids work are homes given extra insulation/energy efficiency measures? If not, could they be? Again, specifically external insulation.

Reply

The Director of Housing responded that when a void property was inspected, all areas were looked at and if required loft insultation would be increased, windows checked, etc. but external wall insultation was not fitted on an ad-hoc basis as it was not efficient doing a single property but more efficient on a programme basis. Previous external wall insulation schemes had been part funded by central government initiatives, such as CESP and ECO. There was no match funding currently available, but it was hoped government would look at this as part of their response to the climate emergency and would be responded to by Housing accordingly.

It was further reported that when capital improvements were undertaken, Housing looked to increase insulation wherever possible. Most recently insultation levels had increased as part of the cladding programme.  Properties in Beaumont Leys and being worked on in New Parks were all benefitting from increased insulation as part of the renewal of the external cladding, and Housing would continue to do this.

The Chair noted that further clarification required on the questions above would be provided in writing.