100% Compliance, 100% of the Time Just Got Even More Important
Alex McLean, Head of Compliance at Osborne’s specialist Property Services business, discusses how efficient and effective building safety compliance is critical in any EPC Level C and zero carbon retrofitting programme. Alex argues whether it be EPC Level C or full retrofit programmes that social landlords chose to prioritise, achieving certainty of compliance through accurate and real time data underpins everything.
The drive to net zero will be a major priority for social landlords in the coming years, as will the interim milestone of ensuring a minimum EPC level C rating for all social housing by 2035. There are significant gaps in EPC data, particularly for social homes that have not been re-let for several years. Certificates are valid for ten years and are static even though properties could have been altered significantly during that time. The current level of stock condition data related to insulation, glazing and heating systems isn’t reliable or complete enough to suit the planning needs for net EPC Level C or zero carbon retrofit.
Alex stresses that, compliance checks generate a vast amount of data for large social housing providers to manage. This burden will inevitably be added to by EPC Level C and net zero programme initiatives, where new methodologies and technologies are certain to be adopted.
When information comes from multiple sources, in inconsistent formats, just collating the data is a difficult task. Validating the data and interrogating it to support planning and decision making quickly becomes next to impossible when property and compliance service provision is highly fragmented.
Bringing together a multidisciplinary team to specifically tackle compliance issues alongside EPC Level C and zero carbon programmes will help. But this team will need accurate and usable data to work from. There’s also the issue of maintaining 100% compliance in the longer term once the team has completed the initial catch-up exercise.
Getting the data under control is the first step towards 100% safety compliance, 100% of the time and this challenge just got a little bit more complicated with these new demands placed on social housing providers to deliver EPC Level C and Zero Carbon retrofit programmes.
This emerging operating environment requires the capability to take data feeds from even more multiple sources, extract key data, and present consolidated data in a clear format that highlights compliance gaps. With well-organised and reliable data, social landlords can stop working in the dark. The risk of vital safety checks being missed will be drastically reduced. An asset management strategy can then be built around accurate and consistent data as each social landlord plays their own important part, over and above their normal day job in retrofitting the UK’s housing stock. Arguably the largest and most ambitious sustainability programme the nation has taken on.
For more information on how Osborne can support you to fulfil your housing stock compliance obligations, please contact Alex McLean by email [email protected] or visit our website and resource centre.
