Blog

Happiness, placemaking and asset management

Happiness, placemaking and asset management

The National Housing Maintenance Forum (NHMF) recently asked us to write our thoughts on how asset management and residents’ wellbeing may develop in the near future. Here’s what we wrote: Talking about “happiness” in an NHMF blog may seem a bit of an odd subject...

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Dynamis solar PV – just the right size

Dynamis solar PV – just the right size

At a recent National Housing Federation (NHF) event we met with fellow “sector supplier” Dynamis.  As we know that NHF do a rigorous check on who they classify as a sector supplier we were very pleased to meet them.  We found that they are a solar PV installer firm...

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Levelling up metrics – the glaring gap

Levelling up metrics – the glaring gap

UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda aims to give ‘everyone the opportunity to flourish'. This “people” focussed aim seems to align with other emerging trends:  examples include “placemaking” [1], social value, wellbeing and the “S” part of ESG.  Whilst this is a...

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Water efficiency targets for UK housing

Water efficiency targets for UK housing

The UK has been busy establishing domestic water efficiency targets to prepare ourselves for climate change. Here’s a quick review. England The government has recently released its latest water efficiency policy paper for England [1]. Several objectives have been...

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How can digital tech support healthy homes?

How can digital tech support healthy homes?

Coastline Housing in Cornwall has collaborated on a research and innovation project called Smartline, which has included the installation of smart sensors in some of their homes. We asked Smartline to share the details of their interesting and pertinent project: How...

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SHIFT Gold accreditation for new build – our response

SHIFT Gold accreditation for new build – our response

We have received a flurry of requests on how a new build development can attain “SHIFT Gold”. On the one hand this is a great sign that the SHIFT scheme is having a real impact on what gets built. On the other hand, it’s not the intention for SHIFT to accredit any...

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Decarbonising Social Housing – the ALMO perspective

Decarbonising Social Housing – the ALMO perspective

The National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) have recently published a report for the NFA Best Practice Series [1] addressing lessons from the ALMO sector regarding decarbonising social housing. This blog outlines areas where ALMOs differ from housing associations, but it...

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Consultation launched – SHIFT 2023 updates

Consultation launched – SHIFT 2023 updates

It’s that time of year that we’ve all been waiting for… SHIFT’s annual consultation on our updates for next year’s environmental reporting and audit process. We continuously monitor national policy, strategy and legislative changes related to sustainability and the...

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New ESG reporting requirements approved

New ESG reporting requirements approved

In 2019, as part of the European Green Deal, the EU announced the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which has recently been approved and will soon require companies to publish detailed information on their environmental, social and governance...

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Developing a climate resilience standard for social landlords

Developing a climate resilience standard for social landlords

It is becoming increasingly important to ensure homes are resilient to the impacts of climate change. Around 20% of UK homes already overheat, even outside of heatwave events, while 1 in 6 homes are at risk of some form of flooding, and the risks of both flooding and...

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Economic growth and net zero

Economic growth and net zero

Soon after Liz Truss became prime minister, BEIS initiated a “Net Zero Review” which aimed to establish how net zero targets can contribute to an economic growth target of 2.5% [1].  Given all the recent U-turns on both economic and carbon policy we’re not sure what...

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Hanham Hall

Hanham Hall

Here at SHIFT, we’re pretty keen on sustainability in the built environment, which is why we decided to head over to Hanham Hall, on the outskirts of Bristol, for our September social outing. Hanham Hall was lauded as the first large-scale housing scheme intended to...

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