Green win: a plan for retrofitting homes for people and planet

23 March 2021

Green win: a plan for retrofitting homes for people and planet

Last week Norwich Green Party councillors Jamie Osborn and Paul Neale proposed the following motion to the city council, setting out a proposal to retrofit housing to address fuel poverty while also reducing carbon emissions and providing thousands of local jobs. We were delighted that the motion passed, with some Labour amendments. Green councillors will now continue to work to ensure that this aspiration becomes reality.

The original motion is as follows:

Retrofitting Motion

Proposer - Councillor Osborn

Seconder - Councillor Neale

Many homes in Norwich were built before the introduction of energy performance or buildings regulations and, sadly, thousands of excess winter deaths are likely to be caused by poorly heated homes each year in the UK. [1,2] Emissions from residential buildings form the largest share of Norwich's total scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. [3,4]

This council RESOLVES to ask cabinet to:

develop a retrofitting strategy for council-owned housing, showing how it will become carbon neutral by 2030, working with partners where appropriate
identify and work with a wide range of partners to investigate opportunities for retrofitting to enable projects across the city retrofitting homes in the social housing, privately rented and owner-occupied sectors
recognise the potential for high-value jobs in retrofitting as part of the city’s covid recovery plan
actively identify appropriate potential sources of funding to take this work forward.

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