Climate jury holds its final session

It’s a big week for our customers involved in the Social Housing Tenant’s Climate Jury. They met for the final time last night to discuss their views and opinions on how social housing customers, registered providers and others can work together to tackle climate change in their homes and neighbourhoods.

We’re delighted that four of our customers have had the opportunity to be part of the jury – the first of its kind – which is made up of 30 tenants from FCHO and four other northern housing associations: Karbon Homes, Salix Homes, Thirteen Group and Yorkshire Housing. The project is being led by the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC), which represents the views of housing organisations in the North of England.

The jurors have come together in ten online sessions held over the summer to discuss the topic of climate change and retrofitting social homes to make them more energy efficient. They have also made recommendations to the social housing sector on how tenants would like to see landlords approach the net zero challenge.

Rob Curtis, who has been one of our customers for eleven years, is among the jurors taking part. He lives in the Alt neighbourhood with his wife and family. Rob said:

“When I received the letter about the Climate Jury I knew I wanted to apply to be part of it. As a household we’re interested in climate change. Retrofitting homes to make them more energy efficient and building greener new homes is really important to me. In the last 30 years I’ve seen so much change and damage to our planet, we must find new ways of doing things if we want tackle these issues for current and future generations.

“I’ve got a lot out of the jury sessions; it’s been interesting to listen to views and perspectives of the speakers and tenants of other housing associations, and I’ve learned about new technologies like ground source heat pumps. There lots of solutions out there that can help make a difference to us and how we live in our homes, and it’s great that the jury is getting involved and sharing their views.

“I’m looking forward to hearing the group’s final recommendations and where that takes us.”

The final report and recommendations of the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury will be launched at the NHC’s Northern Housing Summit in November. We’ll be sharing more on this soon so keep your eyes peeled.