Articles

In 2018, the Hackitt review required building managers to keep digital building records, from the design and conceptualisation phase through its life cycle. With the boom years of High Rise Residential Buildings (HRRB) development between 1953 and 1972, and with 6544 buildings erected in the half-century following the end of World War 2, nearly all of the remaining 270 HRRBs were built in a pre-digital age.

Thus, in 2021, complying with new design regulations while creating new digital records for those HRRBs presents a major challenge.

TV presenter and architect George Clarke is known for his forthright views on issues affecting housing and the built environment and he's has long been a champion of good design and sustainability.
He is also Ecodan Ambassador for heat pump manufacturer, Mitsubishi Electric and writes regularly on their blogsite about issues affecting the construction industry and housing in particular.

The rise in multi-generational living has necessitated a shift in how products are specified. Grandparents will often be living under the same roof as small children, and their needs, particularly from a usability and safety perspective, will differ drastically. This becomes especially pertinent when it comes to the bathroom, one of the most heavily used rooms in the home.

To take a closer look at some of the key issues associated with bathroom safety, Triton Showers teamed up with Housing Association Magazine to host a roundtable on the subject. Victoria Galligan, Editor at Housing Association, reports.

The fully-financed solar generation and smart battery storage solution will help housing associations meet their carbon reduction targets and alleviate rates of fuel poverty amongst tenants

The UK energy services company, SMS plc, has unveiled a unique new solution that aims to radically reduce carbon emissions of Britain’s social housing stock. Through Solopower, SMS is partnering with local councils and housing associations to significantly upgrade the energy performance of social accommodation, delivering solar generation, battery storage, and smart meters to landlords and their residents at zero upfront cost.

In deploying these smart home energy technologies – which are intelligently controlled and optimised by SMS’s FlexiGrid™ aggregation software – Solopower can decarbonise housing electricity by approximately 90% per home. The solution will therefore contribute to the enhancement of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings and reduce tenant electricity bills by up to 25% (approximately £200 in savings per year).

Thermal Stores have been an effective and highly efficient hot water solution in the UK for almost 40 years. However, many installers today revert to an unvented cylinder solution for mains pressure hot water, mainly due to a lack of awareness and understanding of thermal store technology.

McDonald Water Storage have seen thermal store popularity rise however, particularly in apartment applications, as they overcome many of the frustrations both installers and housing providers have with unvented cylinder installations, including the hidden costs of the difficult G3 requirements and ongoing annual maintenance.

It’s perfectly understandable that many people are struggling to feel the Christmas spirit, as yet another year is added to the number of years of failure in housing policy. 2020 will definitely be one for the history books. Of course, the Covid pandemic naturally stole our focus, but in truth, there still exist a myriad of issues afflicting the housing sector that were around before the virus and will continue to make people’s lives difficult going forward if we do not come together as an industry to solve them. Housing Association Magazine’s Joe Bradbury takes a look at what the social housing sector needs in 2021.