CSR AT LMH

As one of the UK’s leading social housing providers LMH embraces the sustainability agenda in its broadest sense. Its aim is to create thriving and healthy communities where people can live safely for generations to come. They collaborate closely with tenants and stakeholders and integrate social, environmental, ethical and human rights into their day-to-day operation.

LMH’s GIFT group (Green Initiatives For Tomorrow) sets the Environmental targets and co-ordinates and measures their implementation. Annual targets are named, timed and monitored through the Covalent management system and form a work plan for the Sustainability Officer and employees. GIFT focuses on fuel poverty, sustainable homes, job creation, energy efficiency, waste, emissions, water use, transport and procurement. L

MH’s CSR commitment and objectives are outlined in its Sustainability strategy. Its performance is evaluated using ISO 14001 and SHIFT (Sustainable Homes Index For Tomorrow), the UK’s leading independent sustainability benchmarking and best practice network

OBJECTIVE

To reduce energy and water consumption in the housing stock.

CONTEXT

LMH’s Environmental Policy Statement sets a number of commitments, among which: “to adopt the highest environmental standards in all areas of operation, meeting and exceeding all relevant legislative requirements” and “to aim to include environmental and ethical considerations in investment decisions where appropriate”. More specifically, its Sustainability strategy includes the following objective: “To provide high quality and well managed housing stock including highly energy efficient and sustainable homes through investment in our existing stock and building new homes that achieve high energy standards.”

In 2008, LMH took over the management of 15,000 homes in Liverpool. The majority of the housing stock was far below the UK Government’s 2010 Decent Homes standard. To address this challenge, LMH launched an extensive £400m 5-year investment programme, which has transformed many of the homes to a standard far exceeds Decent Home criteria. Over £250m of this investment was spent on sustainable measures which fulfil both specific environmental best practice criteria (measured against internationally recognised standards) and also embrace the wider goals and the spirit of the European Commission’s CSR strategy.

LMH has recently been appointed as Liverpool City Council’s official housing delivery partner that will see it, with partners, build 1,500 new eco-standard homes and retrofit 1,000 more back into use over the next five years, making a major impression tackling fuel poverty among tenants and meeting housing need.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GOOD PRACTICE

The ambitious multiannual strategy – quite outstanding in the UK context – included loft insulation and cavity wall insulation for 10,000 homes as well as investment in equipment, including: high-quality double-glazed windows; A-rated gas central heating systems; ‘A’ rated condensing boilers; ‘low water-consumption’ taps. Part of this was made possible by negotiating the largest CESP deal (Community Energy Saving Programme) in UK social housing with EDF Energy.

Other targeted projects have also been carried out:

• A solar heating initiative in six sheltered schemes and 10 associated bungalows
• Transformation of a Family Centre into the UK’s first eco-friendly homeless centre
• Complete retrofitting of 1,500 derelict properties

In addition, LMH supports behaviour change and helps address fuel poverty through awareness-raising leaflets and a dedicated fuel debt advice service, where an officer visits a customer’s home to help advice on energy debt, energy switching, energy efficiency and water efficiency.

A new form of awareness-raising will be tested, – the “Energy Fantasy league” – based on a competition approach: 21 tenants in newly refurbished properties will be split into teams and each month the household and team that saved the most energy will win prizes. The annual winners receive an AAA-rated kitchen appliance of their choice.

Key results and benefits

• 7,291 single glazed windows replaced with high quality double-glazed windows
• 13,082 A-rated gas central heating systems installed
• 10,045 boilers replaced with ‘A’ rated condensing boilers
• 10,000 homes provided with 250mm loft insulation and cavity wall insulation
• 13,269 kitchens fitted with ‘low water-consumption’ taps
• 394 empty (void) dwellings transformed into properties into desirable, energy-efficient homes
• Expected overall annual fuel savings resulting from the solar heating initiative: around £10,300 per year, for the expected life of the system (25 years)
• 70% fuel bill reduction and carbon emissions cut by 1943.7 tonnes per home per year as a result of the retrofitting of 1,500 homes, which created 300 sustainable jobs