John Cotton’s Leader’s speech at the Council meeting on 21 May focused on three areas where the city “lags behind national averages and other major cities”: “Housing, Skills, and Transport”. He said “Stronger performance in these three key areas will boost productivity and investment, increase incomes, reduce poverty, and deal with the unacceptable gulf in life expectancy between our richest and poorest citizens.”
Social Housing in Birmingham and the key issue of Retrofit
There are about 425,000 households in Birmingham. There is an urgent need for more new homes to be built. Last month, the council issued a statement revealing that there are more than 22,000 households on the housing register in Birmingham, including 5,000 households that are homeless and living in temporary accommodation.
But there is also another housing issue: the Council’s own social homes. It has approximately 59,000 homes. The Council’s aim is “that all our housing stock is carbon neutral by 2030”. On average this would be about 10,000 to be retrofitted each year. As Councillor Sharon Thompson, now Deputy Leader, said in 2022 when she was Cabinet Member for Housing & Homelessness,
“BCC’s housing stock is a large net contributor to the city’s carbon emissions, accounting for 26% of the city’s total. Tackling these heat emissions and achieving a ‘net zero’ position is key to us achieving our route to zero commitment. We need to improve the thermal efficiency of our housing stock to reduce carbon emissions, reduce energy bills, address fuel poverty and support a just transition to a zero carbon city.”
In July 2022 “Birmingham City Council announced its initial contribution to retrofit 300 homes as part of the 3 Cities retrofit programme and its commitment to make Birmingham carbon neutral by 2030.” The 300 properties will be located in Bromford in East Birmingham. But so far, 2 years later, the investment funding has not been forthcoming.
The BCC Route to Net Zero Annual Report January 2024 Executive Summary lists “some of our most significant achievements over the last year”. Only two give the numbers of homes involved, and it is not stated if these have been fully retrofitted:
“Securing £24.8m of Social Housing Decarbonisation Funding (SHDF) to improve the energy efficiency of 2,076 council homes.
Concluding the Sustainable Warmth Competition project, delivering over 1500 energy efficiency measures to 650 homes.”
In addition to Retrofitting existing council homes the Council announced on 16 February 2024 that “Works on 36 new family council houses using the latest energy-saving technologies have been completed off Gressel Lane, East Birmingham, and council tenants have begun to move in”. There is also a plan to build 55 new high energy efficient homes in Dawberry Fields Road.
Which Cabinet Member is responsible for Retrofit?
The new Council Cabinet was announced at the annual Council Meeting on 21 May. There are two Cabinet Members whose briefs are relevant to Home Retrofit. Cllrr Jayne Francis retained her role as Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness and Cllr Majid Mahmood’s previous role as Cabinet Member for the Environment was expanded to become Environment and Transport. The responsibilities of Cllr Mahmood were listed by the Council Leader in the Birmingham Mail on 22 May 2024 as
Cabinet member for Environment and Transport, Majid Mahmood
Enforcement activity; pest control; cleaner neighbourhoods; waste strategy and services; recycling; parks and allotments; climate change; green city initiatives; transport strategies; highways; advice to planning committee on highways; air quality; flood risk planning.
This includes “climate change”, but it is very worrying that there is no mention of home Retrofit or of the overall Council agenda of Net Zero.
In fact according to the Council’s Constitution the issues that the Cabinet Member for Environment “has accountability for“ are significantly more ambitious. They include “Working with partners to develop a strategy for sustainability, liveability, and environmental improvement for the city” and “Engaging in proactive citywide and national policy development to tackle the causes and consequences of climate change”. I can find no evidence that these have been part of Cllr Mahmood’s agenda up to now: will they be this coming year?
The responsibilities of Cllr Francis were listed by the Council Leader as
Cabinet member for Housing and Homelessness, Jayne Francis
Council housing management services; housing development; housing options; tenant engagement in social housing; Registered Social Landlords; Private Rented Sector; strategic leadership of the response to Exempt Accommodation
Again, there is no mention of home retrofit, or of the overall Council agenda of Net Zero. In contrast, the agenda of the Homes Overview and Scrutiny Committee 22 June 2023 included as Appendix 2 “‘Cabinet Member Priorities and Forthcoming Decisions”:
“Cabinet Member for Housing & Homelessness
- Deliver the whole house retrofit pilot, including evaluation and lessons learned.
27.06.23 Cabinet Report Three Cities Whole House Retrofit Pilot – Interim Progress Homes Overview and Scrutiny Committee 18 April 2024”
The Cabinet Member for Housing & Homelessness at the time was Cllr Jayne Francis.
Is Retrofit on the agendas of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees?
The Committee that relates to Cllr Mahmood’s responsibilities is the Sustainability and Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee. At its meeting on 16 May 2024 it stated
3.1 The Committee’s Terms of Reference is to fulfil the functions of an Overview and Scrutiny Committee as they relate to any policies, services and activities concerning:
3.1.8 A strategy for sustainability, liveability and environmental improvements
This should obviously include home Retrofit, though there is no specific mention of it. But the statement continued: “4.1 During June 2023 – April 2024, the Committee considered the following topics”. In the list that follows there is no mention of Retrofit at all.
The Committee that relates to Cllr Francis’s responsibilities is the Homes Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The Committee’s Terms of Reference don’t mention Retrofit, though it could be included under “3.1.1 Council Housing management services, repairs and maintenance programmes.” But the Committee meeting on 14 April 2024 lists the issues the Committee considered between June 2023 and February 2024. There is no mention of Retrofit.
In a Council document on 29 June 2023 called ‘Delivering Effective and Flexible Scrutiny’ the Council acknowledged the long-term systemic failure of the Scrutiny system: “For some years, Overview & Scrutiny has pursued very few issues that have contributed significantly to the thinking and actions of the Council’s Cabinet and the Chief Executives senior management team.” But now, nearly a year later, the failure to address the issue of home Retrofit, a key priority of the Council, continues. No-one seems to know which Cabinet member and which Scrutiny Committee is responsible and it ends up with none of them getting to grips with the issue.
What is the solution?
One obvious solution would be for the Council leadership to make just one of the Cabinet Members and one of the Scrutiny Committees responsible for Retrofit. The other solution would be to set up a joint Retrofit Action Committee jointly chaired by both Cabinet Members and with some members from each of the Scrutiny Committees. In either case they should be instructed to urgently produce an up-to-date report of the current situation and a plan of action to move this priority issue forward. And in both cases there should be much more participatory engagement with citizens and communities.
RH 25 May 2024
Birmingham Against The Cuts 