Case Study: Collective Effort for Better Energy Performance of the Existing Housing Stock in Nord Pas de Calais Region

Short Description

In may 2009, in the context of the revision procedure of the Article 7 of the ERDF Regulation, the European Union allowed to use 4% of the national ERDF amounts to improve energy efficiency in social housing.
In France, this has been integrated to the objectives of the social housing organisations and to the commitments they had made in the context of the French Grenelle plan.
The budget of 320 millions euros allocated to energy performance and sustainable energy in social housing enable the organisations to implement projects that are exemplary and repeatable.

In France, projects that are supported by ERDF must:
- focus on dwellings that are the most consuming energy
- being exemplary and having a knock on effect
- concern a lot of dwellings

ERDF is a complement to other fundings:
- the eco-loan of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations
- subsidies from public national agencies (ADEME, ANRU)
- subsidies from local collectivities

The implementation in France has good results thanks to a strong mobilisation. At the European level, an active lobbying has been developed to the European Institutions. At the national level, the French Federation USH has worked with the French Administration on the conditions of implementation of the ERDF measure in regions. At least, the French regional associations for social housing have worked with their partners on the identification of the needs in local stocks, the definition of eligibility criterion, a strategy of intervention on the stock and a support to local organisations.

At the local level, the Regional Associations for social housing were mobilised to enable this implementation and to help the SHO developing new projects. They lead different types of actions:

- Identifications of needs.
- Implementation of the partnership.
- Support to project managers.
- Financial engineering.
- Funding and monitoring of projects.

The Regional Associations in Nord Pas de Calais have developed a tool to support social organizations through a cycle of exchanges (bi-quarterly), a collaborative space on the internet where you can find all relevant documents, trainings of managers of operations and customer care representatives. The association is also working on supporting inhabitants through a campaign of communication and a monitoring of how people live in there dwellings after works, and also supports other partners such as local authorities and enterprises. In the Nord Pas de Calais, 20 companies are involved in this process, with 40 rehabilitation operations eligible to ERDF, that means 6000 dwellings to retrofit.

Key Elements

Main Results

In France 79% of the amounts dedicated to social housing are allocated or in procedure. 7 regions have already programmed all their funds, and projects that are waiting for financing represent 17% of these amounts.
As established in the budget, 40 222 social dwellings have been supported by ERDF.
In Nord Pas de Calais Region about 6000 dwelling have been retrofitted using ERDF fund.

The amount for Nord Pas de Calais Region is divided as follow:
Regional ERDF amount: 700
4% of ERDF funds for Housing: 28
Allocated amount: 20

Lessons learned

In France, the mobilisation to implement the ERDF measure should have strong effects on energy performances of the retrofitted housing stock.

Additional Information

For any information please contact:

JL Lemaire
AR HLM Nord Pas de Calais
contact@hlm-nord-pas-de-calais.org

Website: www.hlm-nord-pas-de-calais.org