Housing directors have told MPs achieving carbon neutrality is not a top priority.
The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee heard a lack of funding certainty and competing concerns meant the issue was ‘not getting the attention’ it deserved.
Strategic director of housing modernisation at Southwark LBC, Michael Scorer, said merely ensuring the authority’s stock was safe to live in was his primary concern.
He said: ‘In my list of priorities, albeit I think it’s critical, spending on the climate emergency comes third because there are other things clearly and more immediately important.'
Chief among the barriers was the sheer cost of achieving carbon neutrality.
Mr Scorer added: ‘The scale of investment of £2.6bn in Southwark is just eye-watering and we don’t know how we are going to find that money.'
He said it was a ‘struggle’ to secure Government help and that funds had ‘strings attached’.
Corporate director of resources at Newham LBC, Conrad Hall, said: ‘Decarbonisation is not getting the attention we would want it to because we don’t know what that long-term funding arrangement is so we can only deal with the short-term.’
He told the committee he would prefer cancellation of debt to short-term funding pots as a solution.
Mr Hall continued: ‘Once its cancelled, it’s cancelled for good.
'We can make plans on that accordingly.
‘As a means of providing support, I think that would give the sector considerably more certainty.’
In terms of funding to build more housing, chief executive of Newham LBC's housing company Populo, Deborah Heenan, called for funds to be consolidated.
She said: ‘A single capital pot with the strategic drive for more affordable homes is going to get better results for everyone.’
Deputy chair of the Local Government Association’s housing board, Pippa Heylings, said councils were at a huge disadvantage compared to housing associations because they did not receive 100% of Right to Buy receipts.
She added councils simply ‘cannot afford’ to balance meeting housing standards and building new homes due to the ‘broken system’.
