Swansea Council are looking at a scary predicted cost of £900 million. They’re committed to maximising the energy efficiency of their housing stock to achieve upcoming Welsh government targets by 2030. The new energy efficiency standards would need an average spend of £65,000 per home. This places an immense burden on the implementing local government.
The council manages around 13,800 local authority council flats, houses and bungalows. In recent years, the estimated costs to bring these properties up to the new living standards have skyrocketed. A report commissioned by the City of Swansea four years ago estimated that decarbonising just Swansea’s housing stock would cost £350 million. Just a year later, that figure exploded to £750 million. Now, as the project drags on, the latest estimates have ballooned to £900 million (that’s close to $1.
To address this requirement, Swansea Council will need to produce energy efficiency plans for all their properties. The federal agencies are supposed to have this done by the end of March 2027. Aside from setting the new targets, these reports will be our best guide on what needs to happen to meet those standards.
This week, the Welsh government announced a further £256 million to improve social homes across Wales. In addition to transportation improvements, this funding pays for critical energy efficiency upgrades. This direct financial assistance is targeted by local officials as the most important form of support. Deputy leader Andrea Lewis highlighted the need for more funding in her remarks during a recent cabinet meeting.
“Essentially we support the Welsh government’s ambition to improve the quality of our [housing] stock in terms of energy efficiency for the benefit of our tenants, but without additional funding this will be difficult, if not impossible, to carry out.” – Andrea Lewis
In an effort to secure necessary resources and outline a clear strategy, Swansea Council’s cabinet has approved a policy detailing how it intends to meet and monitor the new housing standards. The Council’s goal has been a better overall housing stock in the community. They intend to submit this policy to the Welsh government to bolster that effort.
The council’s past work has resulted in more than £500 million invested in raising homes to new Welsh standards. PEDs on the other hand, unfortunately the costs of hitting these new energy efficiency benchmarks has all but doubled. This begs the question of how these ambitious targets will be achieved without extra monetary assistance from the federal government.
