Rochester and Strood

Home energy performance

• There are 22,300 homes with an EPC rating lower than C, which therefore need improvement to meet the Government's home energy efficiency target for 2035 – which the EEIG recommends bringing forward to 2030.
  • Rochester and Strood ranks 63/573 England and Wales Constituencies for the share of homes – 26,200 – rated C. This is better than the UK average.
  • It ranks 125/573 for the share of homes – 500 – rated F or G (lower ranking is worse). This is better than the UK average:

Home energy investment

• 22,300 homes below an EPC C rating means 3,200 need to be improved each year to meet the EPC C target for all homes by 2030.
• 3,041 households have received assistance with energy efficiency measures over the nine years of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) to the end of 2022. That's 6.3% of households in Rochester and Strood, lower than the Great Britain average of 8.6%.
• In 2022, 162 households were supported by ECO with a total investment of £1,340,000.

• Getting all homes up to EPC C requires investment of £167.25 million by 2030 – £23.9 million per year.
• Alongside regulation of minimum energy efficiency standards for the rented sectors, Government should contribute around £54.7 million of this total (£7.8 million per year to 2030). Some of this will continue to come from the Energy Company Obligation. More may come from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grants committed to for this Parliament, to address social housing and some of the 500 homes in Rochester and Strood rated EPC F or G.
• The remainder needs to come from able-to-pay homeowners incentivised by a step-change in government support for energy efficiency investment. Critically, this support is currently missing from existing policy and manifesto commitments.
• For example, varying the rate of Stamp Duty to take account of the EPC rating alongside the sale price could incentivise investment by homeowners and help to embed good energy performance in property values.
  • In Rochester and Strood over the last five years, the average number of residential property transactions subject to Stamp Duty was 2,200.
  • If the properties transacted reflect the Constituency-wide composition of EPC ratings, then 1,000 properties rated D or worse change hands each year and homeowners could – with a Stamp Duty incentive in place – be motivated to improve them.
  • This could therefore make a significant contribution to the 3,000 properties that need to be improved in Rochester and Strood each year to meet the EPC C target by 2030 – alongside rented sector regulation, a properly funded and locally led scheme (potentially supported with Home Upgrade Grants), the ECO, and other incentives.

Fuel poverty and excess winter mortality

• Using the government's low-income, low energy efficiency indicator, 4,100 households are in fuel poverty in 2023: 8.5%, lower than England's average level of 14.4%. This ranks it 37 out of 533 English Constituencies (higher rank is better).
• However, to give a better sense of households' exposure to higher energy prices during the cost of living crisis, an additional measure is used. This looks at how many households would need to spend over 10% of their disposable income, after housing costs, to keep adequately warm. Under this measure, 16,800 households are in fuel poverty in 2023: 34.5%, lower than England's average level of 49.0% This ranks it 92 out of 533 English Constituencies (higher rank is better).
• Excluding the impact of Covid, there were 250 excess winter deaths over the last 5 years for which data are available, of which:
  • 75 can be attributed to cold housing conditions
  • 50 can be linked to the coldest 25% of homes in Rochester and Strood
  • 25 can be directly attributed to fuel poverty
• The vulnerability of Rochester and Strood to excess winter mortality in 2020-21 ranked 375 out of 573 (lower is worse) Constituencies for which data are available.

Wider impacts

• Getting all homes up to a good level of efficiency would save each household on average £500 per year on their energy bills at current energy prices. This would amount to £11.2 million per year across Rochester and Strood once all homes are improved.
• The number of economically active people in Rochester and Strood is 76,500, of whom 4,000 work in construction. 2,525 economically active people aren't employed. Of these, 430 are young – aged just 16-24. Energy efficiency investment could support employment of 400 people to 2030.
• The annual net gross value added (GVA) from an energy efficiency infrastructure investment programme in Rochester and Strood would be £9.6 million. The present value of GVA over the duration of a programme to 2030 would be £58.7 million.
• Other benefits not quantified here include increased tax revenues, the avoided (including hidden) costs of unemployment, better health from improved housing, more spending power, and the latter's impact on the Rochester and Strood's economy.