RETROFIT, NOW!
Josh Blamire: Cosy Homes Club Research Lead, with Citizen Researchers Tom Doubtfire, Helen Houghton, Emily Hutchinson
What does it mean to live in a warm and cosy home?
Over the past months we’ve been exploring this with our local community in Anfield and Everton. We’ve been having conversations with people in their homes, in food banks and pantries, at the church, the launderette, in cafés and pubs, and other community spaces. We’ve held pop-up stalls, workshops, and a film screening to ‘spark’ discussions about housing and energy with the diverse people living in our neighbourhoods. We’ve also explored this question with local business owners, landlords, builders and contractors, and community activists.
This is what we found.
Crisis in the Cost of Energy
Fuel poverty in Anfield and Everton is double the national average, and many people are struggling to pay their bills given soaring energy prices and a cost-of-living crisis. During our research, people spoke to us about the negative impacts this was having on their mental health and wellbeing. Maria, 62, who has lived in Anfield most of her life, first in the older terraced housing that was demolished before recently moving to a nearby new build, told us “they [the energy companies] threaten me every so many months […] I can literally feel the blood draining from me because I’m like: how am I going to pay this?!”.
Katie is in her late 20s and recently moved to a property in Kensington having privately rented a house in Everton for seven years that did not have central heating. She reflects that “I thought I was a bit sad, but I was just fucking cold”. Expensive energy bills combined with rising rents and mortgages and a lack of secure, well-paid work have put real strain on an area that people noted has long struggled to keep up with the cost-of-living.
“I thought I was a bit sad,
but I was just fucking cold.”
This is an emergency laid bare by the measures that some people are needing to take to save money, such as only heating one room, reducing the number of showers they take, and not washing clothes as often. Doris, a woman in her 70s, who owns her home in Anfield, told us how, since the death of her husband, she had been living in the kitchen, relying on heat from the cooker. Some residents are falling into debt and, while others report feeling ‘lucky’ that they can afford to pay their bills, and empathise with those that cannot, the cost-of-living crisis may still be hitting them in other ways.
Problems with the Housing Stock
With many homes in the area first built in the 1880s, our older housing stock is in a poor condition and our homes leak heat. Lots of people reported the build-up of damp, condensation and mould in their homes, while older houses are particularly susceptible to draughts, leaks, and have features such as high ceilings which make them difficult to heat (bearing in mind they were initially designed to be heated by coal, which was plentiful at the time). Rev Mikey Ferguson visits many members of the community at their home through his work with St Peter’s Church, Everton. He sees lots of people who are struggling with cold homes. “The front doors let out so much heat [they] might as well be open”, he remarks. Alice, who is in her mid-40s, moved to Liverpool from France some twenty years ago. Below she describes her experience of private renting in an HMO (or house of multiple occupation:
“So I had this big old room with massive ceilings, no insulation whatsoever, no double glazing. The window was broken. I was so cold. There was no central heating. I had to use those electric heaters that were using a lot of energy and the meter was a prepaid meter but not even with a card or fob, I’d have to put in pound coins […] The bathroom and kitchen were on the other side of the landing, going to wash was just a nightmare. I wasn’t washing every day. My mental health was at rock bottom, you know, it was horrendous.”
Above left: the backs of typical terraced houses. Above right: a recently collapsed building on Oakfield Road, a main road through Anfield.
So, much of our housing stock is in desperate need of upgrade, be it replacing old windows and doors or underperforming heating systems. Residents also noted the poor state of our wider built environment, such as uneven and unsafe roads, lack of parking, and the build-up of rubbish in entries that attracts vermin, while we have witnessed several buildings collapse over the past few years.
This is coupled with a broader crisis in housing related to a lack of affordability, overcrowding in some homes while other houses remain empty long-term, and years of stunted local regeneration politics. And, although the area has recently seen the development of many new build homes, the local people and housing activists that we spoke to tended to agree that these houses are not being built to a sufficient standard to help cut bills and ensure that residents stay warm (and consequently will likely need upgrading in the future). There was also a feeling that some private landlords – several of whom live afar – are not properly invested in the area and do not take good care of their tenants and their properties (although other landlords were seen to be more socially responsible). For instance, one tenant who has lived in both social and private-rented housing in the area said that some private landlords and letting agencies are not being held accountable for problems and repairs: “when you do make a complaint it’s almost like [they are] looking down on you and saying: ‘who are you to complain, just be thankful you have a roof over your head!’”.
At Homebaked CLT, we seek to ensure that homes are high-quality and affordable to local people, and that we live in an environment that provides good jobs, green space, and proper opportunities for our communities to thrive.
So, how do we get there?
Taking Back Power through Retrofit
‘Retrofit’ is the technical term for making upgrades to your home to increase energy efficiency and to help create warm homes and cut the cost of bills. While many residents are taking steps to keep themselves warm – such as wearing extra layers in the house – we can apply similar measures to our homes. This could be DIY-style draught-proofing or simply switching to more energy efficient lightbulbs, but could also include work carried out by building professionals such as installing loft, wall, or underfloor insulation, solar panels, and heat pumps. We learned that a few individuals and families in Anfield and Everton have already begun to ‘retrofit’ their homes and as a result are seeing cost savings. But for many in the community it’s not that easy. The work needed is often too costly and not everyone qualifies for grant funding. There is also a lack of local trusted traders, and people fear that building work will be disruptive and invasive, or may damage the character of their older homes. And, while housing associations across the city are beginning retrofit work on their properties, homeowners and private tenants we spoke to wondered how they might access support for making adaptations. The answer, we think, lies in developing a community-led area-based retrofit scheme that involves scaling-up this work at first a street and then a neighbourhood level, leaving no one and no home behind.
Right: Terraced houses opposite empty land where homes once stood.
Building on what we’ve got
Anfield and Everton suffer challenges including high levels of poverty worsened by austerity, and poor health, while our neighbourhoods are undergoing rapid change that is associated with the growth in temporary accommodation in the area and the recent arrival of a more transient population that is younger and more culturally and ethnically diverse (which too brings positive opportunities). Many of our conversations showed that the housing demolitions of the previous decades have instilled a sense of grief and loss that has taken time to overcome, and long-term frustrations with attempts at regeneration have led to a sense of lack of ownership and control of the area. Yet, those who live and work here spoke of close bonds with their neighbours, a strong sense of local community, and of its many valuable assets (such as social enterprises, social spaces, charities and faith organisations). This demonstrates the potential for building a neighbourhood retrofit scheme that is led by the community and enables us to move forward together – long-term residents, new arrivals, and visitors alike – with hope for the future.
“Everton has never struggled with spirit, it’s a very unique place. There are some great communities in this area, we all look out for each other.”
The Bigger Picture
Aside from warmer homes and cheaper energy bills, what else can community-led retrofit do for us? For one, reducing or even removing entirely our reliance on fossil fuels for heating will provide a big solution to the climate crisis. The ongoing war in Ukraine has also emphasised the need to establish energy security within the UK. Speaking with people in Anfield and Everton, there was strong enthusiasm about the prospect to create high-quality jobs and training for local people within the retrofit industry, building community wealth and enabling the area to thrive once again. As local community activist Sam noted: “what people need is jobs that they feel proud of […] and I think [housing retrofit] should be a beacon for across the city”. On an individual home level, upgrading housing infrastructure can lead to improvements in physical and mental health and wellbeing, a greater sense of security in one’s home, and even potential increases in house values, a win-win for all. Yet, despite growing appetite within our communities to take back control, direction and leadership from central government has been lacking, hence the urgent need to start this work from below!
Want to know more?
If you are interested in learning more about the research, or hearing about our next steps, get in touch with Rachael Branton (rachael.branton@homebaked.org.uk) or Josh Blamire (j.blamire@wlv.ac.uk).