Partnership is the key to SHDF success

All strategic development and asset management teams will appreciate the hours of work and level of expertise required to secure government funding. It's an elating experience to learn that your bid has been successful, but what then? What do you have in place to make your plans a reality?

In Birmingham, Equans worked in partnership with the council to bid for and secure £24m from the Government's Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) last year – the largest single allocation to date – unlocking an £111m decarbonisation programme across the city.

A collaborative approach, made possible through Equans and Birmingham City Council's existing repairs and maintenance contract, enabled us to seamlessly mobilise this retrofit programme to more than 1,600 homes, with no delays between funding-award and delivery – something that has been a real issue for other successful SHDF applicants.

The key differentiator here is true partnership working. Equans has been Birmingham Council's main repairs and maintenance contractor since 2016, and our existing knowledge of their stock helped identify properties that could benefit most so that sample retrofit assessments and bespoke energy modelling could be developed for each property type.

Birmingham's openness in collaborating with us on this project meant that we could offer especially wide-ranging assistance, including retrofit option appraisal, design, programming, pricing and predicted financial returns. This rigorous, all-encompassing approach has translated into a solution that delivers genuine value for money for the council, at a time when every penny counts.

By working so closely together, we were able to quickly develop and roll out seven bespoke schemes, leaning on an already in-place workforce, Equans' in-house PAS-certified retrofit teams and established supply chain.

A common unforeseen workload is the administration and reporting required to draw down funding. We have supported the council by helping to collate monthly reports to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, detailing financial information and data on properties retrofitted.

The council has placed trust in our retrofit teams to undertake all the Trustmark lodgements required for funding compliance, and we report this back to the council along with the certification documents within the required timeframes. This provides a seamless, end-to-end service and prevents the need to appoint third-party consultants.

This speedy mobilisation has been key to the success of the programme, especially due to the significant number of properties to be retrofitted in such a short period of time.

Today, just six months on, almost 800 homes in the city have been successfully transformed – with some now reaching an Energy Performance Certificate A rating.

Residents are seeing their energy bills halve – some are set to save more than £1,000 per year – and they share with us that they are thrilled at living in markedly more affordable and more comfortable homes.

We're linking the SHDF programme with our day-to-day repairs and maintenance service for the council too, meaning that our teams are on hand to maintain the technology installed.

Across the city, emissions will be reduced by more than 2,500 carbon tonnes annually by March 2025.

The success of this project is almost entirely down to effective partnership working – building on the strong foundations of a trusting relationship established over several years, joining forces to tackle any challenges encountered along the way, and a steadfast commitment from all involved to get things done.

The collaborative approach demonstrated so well in Birmingham is one that could be replicated by local authorities and social housing providers up and down the UK – partnership truly is the key to unlocking SHDF success.