National Platforms

When work began on POWER HOUSE EUROPE, partners already had a good idea of what might be preventing housing managers from taking up the energy challenge in a systematic and ambitious way. However, to fine tune and direct activities within the project at local and European level, our member federations conducted a needs analysis survey to identify the key factors which local organizations perceive as being the main obstacles.

We therefore asked local cooperative and social housing organizations throughout the EU what it would take to help them to radically reduce energy consumption and increase the use of renewable energy in the homes they build, own and manage. We asked them to outline what they perceive to be the key challenges and the main obstacles blocking progress in this field. Not all organizations answered however over 300 organisations did take the time to provide feedback.

The responses came from a diverse group of local housing providers which is in fact representative of the diversity of the social housing sector in the EU in terms of differences of size (they range from owner/managers of 25 to 50,000 homes). The samples coming from Sweden, England, Italy, France, Spain, Estonia and Bulgaria also represents quite effectively the different climate zones in the EU.

The types of organization is also widely varied and includes condominiums of individually owned apartments, municipally owned rental apartments, housing association which engage in equity shared ownership and rental, housing companies which build affordable housing for destined for private ownership and a large proportion of cooperative housing companies.

In terms of financial options available to the organizations, the range is also quite large where in some states, coffers have been opened with energy efficiency as priority while in others poor owners are left to their own devices in crumbling blocks.

The representativity of the sample means that the challenges and solutions shared between the organizations will potentially cover the whole spectrum of Europe’s energy and housing issues in terms of financial resources, ownership structures, climate, stock characteristics and buildings traditions.

With higher costs of meeting standards, access to finance was one of the key issues seen as an obstacle. In addition to high costs cost misperception and lack of knowledge on cost recovery calculations is to be addressed. Another observation was the huge impact of tax incentives or grants in shaping the providers refurbishment planning (e.g. if renewable energy grants are available then this will be used despite insulations not being optimal) implying that any public funding must be well planned.

Lack of time, insufficient neutral adapted information about new techniques and technologies, lack of long-term performance and maintenance data and lack of trained energy experts were also cited as being stumbling blocks on the path towards more sustainable housing.  Another obstacle in many cases is the lack of energy awareness within the building profession with builders unwillingness to perform a familiar task differently and a lack of understanding of new techniques and technologies among installers, residents and housing provider staff.

Across all categories there is a great interest in learning from their European counterparts and through technical visits and also finding our how to access European funding, whether directly through project financing or indirectly through European Regional Development Fund. In some cases, where ambition was lacking, the federations also see a role to encourage their members to take more sustainable options. Federations also have a role to play in encouraging cooperation along the building chain to pave the way towards an up-scaling of eco-efficient refurbishment from building to neighborhood scale.

The results of the needs analysis helped the POWER HOUSE Housing Federations develop their local communications strategies towards their members. Although there are broad common obstacles the process also revealed that the more local the level the more varied the needs are as they are determined by many different factors.  The Federations draw on the resources generated in European projects and case studies of interest from around Europe to continue to improve their service to their members in improving the energy performance of their stock in a systematic way.