Homes

Our £32 million Brownfield Housing Fund supports the delivery of 2,500 additional new homes on land that has had a previous use (so not the green belt).  This includes community led housing and social housing.

One example is that we funded the Great Wall of Scotswood in Newcastle which brought a derelict site back into productive use. More than 200 new homes at The Rise. A district heating system to provide low carbon heat and a skills hub to train the builders of the future.

New housing schemes can build in the insulation and systems we need but those old, leaky buildings won’t fix themselves.

Existing housing is responsible for around a third of carbon emissions. Too many homes in the region do not meet basic energy efficiency standards. To reach net zero half of the homes in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland will need to be retrofitted.

We commissioned the Energy Saving Trust to audit our housing stock. Half of it is not energy efficient enough.

• Not good enough to keep families warm in winter.
• Not good enough to keep people’s energy bills down.
• Not good enough for us to tackle the climate emergency.

There are 140,000 homes that need to be retrofitted. A programme that could create 3,500 local green jobs. That gets housing to net zero. But at a cost of £13 billion. That scale of money needs central government.

We’re getting started though.  We’ve launched a £2 million green skills programme. Skills bootcamps that give both those in and out of work the training they need for a good green job. These are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks. They give people the opportunity to learn new practical skills and put them on a fast-track to an interview with a local employer.

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