Page 21 - Pobl Annual Report FY25

Annual Report 2025 19
Impact of our existing homes
The Group’s homes continue to show a strong thermal efficiency profile in comparison to Wales
as a whole as we maintain heightened levels of investment in energy‐efficient heating and lighting
systems, and measures such as fabric upgrades, solar panels/batteries, and smart hot water storage
and mechanical ventilation heat recovery systems.
Welsh Housing Quality Standard 2023 (WHQS23) sets an interim target of SAP75 by 2030 for home
energy performance within our sector. Currently 58.3% of our homes meet or exceed this target,
setting a clear baseline from which to progress over the next five years. Our WHQS23 Affordable
Warmth and Decarbonisation Plan uses sequenced Target Energy Pathways for our homes to set out
the timing of retrofit work and costs required to get as many homes as possible to SAP 75 by 2030.
With the welcome assistance of Welsh
Government’s Optimised Retrofit
Programme (ORP) we continue to use the
Group’s scale to increase the speed and
momentum of our decarbonisation
delivery plans: our ‘live’ retrofit projects
are valued at over £41 million across this
year and next year and will improve over
1,300 homes by March 2026. Grant
funding opportunities such as ORP, which
allow us to pilot new approaches, are key to understanding how new technology can be utilised to
deliver the affordable warmth investments our homes and customers need.
ORP funding complements our approach, using a mix of fabric‐first and renewable energy
technologies to improve our least efficient homes. Decarbonising a heat source can be costly for
customers, so these works are subject to a ‘no fuel poverty’ constraint. We’re committed to
measuring average energy costs as part of our determination to deliver affordable living offers.
As part of our long‐term business planning process, we evaluate with our Board the cost of
progressively moving our homes to net zero over time. This is informed by our individual home
target energy pathways and helps us to ensure we have realistic plans in place for the long‐term
decarbonisation and transformation of our homes.