A major new report published by the Housing, Growth and Green Jobs Alliance sets out how social housing tenants can play a central role in delivering the UK’s net-zero ambitions while unlocking long-term, skilled employment in communities across the country.
Delivering for our Communities: Green Jobs and Skills in Social Housing brings together national survey data, in-depth stakeholder engagement, and policy analysis to explore how investment in green homes can create a “virtuous circle” of warmer, energy-efficient homes, stronger local economies, and new green career pathways for social housing residents.
The research, commissioned by the Housing, Growth and Green Jobs Alliance and conducted by Evidence First in partnership with Opergy, finds that social housing is uniquely placed to drive large-scale retrofit and new green housebuilding. With 4.5 million social homes in England and concentrated housing portfolios, housing associations can offer the long-term pipeline certainty needed to grow the UK’s green workforce at scale.
However, the report warns that current skills shortages, stop-start funding cycles, and fragmented delivery systems risk constraining progress. Consultation evidence from experienced industry stakeholders highlights significant gaps in retrofit coordinators and assessors, heat pump installers, insulation specialists and multi-trade operatives – all of which will be essential to meeting national targets for decarbonising homes and contributing to the nation’s broader net zero goals.
At the same time, the report finds that social landlords are already investing heavily in employability and skills. Survey respondents representing 800,000 homes reported supporting 14,000 residents into employment and training in the last year alone, achieving nearly 12,000 positive outcomes. Almost all provide apprenticeships, work placements and construction-related training, alongside wraparound support for those facing barriers to work.
The piece argues that with the right long-term funding, coordinated national leadership and place-based collaboration, social housing can become the engine of a national green homes programme, ensuring that tenants share directly in the jobs created by retrofit and sustainable housebuilding.
The Alliance are calling for longer-term funding windows, strengthened workforce planning, and explicit integration of employability support within green housing programmes to ensure positive impacts are felt in practice across communities.
The report welcomes recent Government commitments, including the £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) and the Warm Homes Plan, but goes further to advance the opportunity presented by this national investment.
It proposes a series of practical recommendations, including:
- Stable, multi-year funding to enable workforce and apprenticeship planning.
- Reform of quality and regulatory systems to reduce delivery bottlenecks.
- A single national workforce strategy to address retrofit skills shortages.
- Fund dedicated long-term employment support programmes (such as JobsPlus) to help tenants furthest from the labour market access green jobs.
- Stronger coordination between Government departments, the Warm Homes Agency, and Mayoral Strategic Authorities.
Lynsey Sweeney, Managing Director of Communities that Work and lead spokesperson for the Alliance, said: “Social housing is uniquely placed to drive the UK’s green transition in a way that delivers real, lasting benefits for communities. This report shows that with the right long-term investment and coordination we can make a genuine impact, delivering warmer, more energy-efficient homes, thousands of skilled green jobs, and clear career pathways for residents. We look forward to collaborating with the Government to unlock the full potential of housing associations and scale up long-term workforce development in this area moving forward.”
The Housing, Growth and Green Jobs Alliance, convened by Communities that Work, brings together leaders from across housing, employment and sustainability to ensure that the UK’s green transition delivers inclusive growth and opportunity for all.
