ADD2575 Purchase Parity Pathways Licence

1.1.    The Mayor wants to make London a zero-carbon city by 2030, while at the same time protecting the most disadvantaged by tackling fuel poverty. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented London with its most challenging period in recent history, and missions to deliver a Green New Deal and a Robust Safety Net are central to London’s recovery programme. 

1.2.    Low-income Londoners are facing an exceptionally challenging period, with the initial and ongoing impacts of coronavirus exacerbated by rising energy prices. In April 2022 energy prices increased by 54 per cent. The Warmer Homes programme is focusing on immediate actions of making homes greener and warmer; reducing energy use; and, therefore, lowering bills and cutting carbon. These actions will particularly help the most vulnerable Londoners who are disproportionately affected by the rising cost of living.

1.3.    The government’s Clean Growth Strategy sets out aspirations for all fuel-poor homes to be upgraded to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C by 2030; and for as many homes as possible to be EPC Band C by 2035 where practical, cost-effective and affordable. The statutory fuel poverty target for England, set out in 2014, “is to ensure that as many fuel-poor homes as is reasonably practicable achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of Band C, by 2030”. Sustainable Warmth: protecting vulnerable households in England, published in February 2021, is the government’s fuel-poverty strategy, outlining steps towards this target. The Mayor’s Fuel Poverty Action Plan lays out actions to help achieve this target in London. 

1.4.    The GLA has received £40.24m in funding from the BEIS Sustainable Warmth Scheme to upgrade energy-inefficient homes of low-income households in London. The projects will complete by March 2023. The scheme consists of two funding streams: Local Authority Delivery Phase 3 to support low-income households heated by mains gas; and Home Upgrade Grant Phase 1 for low-income households that are off the gas grid. To be eligible for funding, households must have an income of below £20,000 per annum after tax, national insurance and housing costs; and an EPC rating of D or below. The number of homes that can start with an EPC rating of D is capped at 30 per cent of all households installed with a measure with funding from the scheme. The key outputs of the programme are: 
3,205 low-income households supported: these households will benefit from a range of energy-efficiency measures such as solid wall insulation, heat pumps, flat roof insulation, underfloor insulation, triple glazing and solar photovoltaics.
minimum annual fuel bill savings for Londoners of £903,000
minimum annual CO2 savings of 3,493 tCO2
minimum annual energy savings of 11,949,000 kWh.

1.5.    To ensure the GLA is reaching eligible households, the Warmer Homes team will use data to focus marketing and engagement where there is likely to be high conversion rate from application to retrofit completion.

1.6.    The Warmer Homes team would use the Pathways product from Parity Projects to view data and retrofit scenarios to support focused engagement with households across London. Parity Projects specialises in modelling options to improve the energy and carbon performance of the existing housing stock. The Pathways product has access to 10m properties, and is the only product of its kind available for the Greater London area. 

Pathways uses a variety of data sources to produce a full energy model of an area’s housing stock. It uses the Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure (RdSAP) method of modelling, with additional and enhanced analysis using geo-referenced data. 

Once the data is in Pathways, users can view and report on the stock’s baseline performance and profile, and identify installation options. As well as identifying all potential measures for each property and across the stock, Pathways tests investment scenarios. These can: 

• seek the most cost-effective ways of reaching energy targets, such as the minimum Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) rating or net zero, across all stock or a specified group
• model the effect of a planned installation programme
• identify additional measures that meet various criteria, and could be added to an existing programme
• calculate the SAP rating, energy intake, fuel bill and CO2 savings for all options and scenarios evaluated. 

As the data analysis is done automatically and at individual property level, when data is updated (for example onsite, or in the measures’ set price) the recommendations for investment scenarios update automatically.

Pathways is provided on an annual-licence basis that includes unlimited access. In addition, the first-year licence covers all aspects of the on-boarding process, including data collation and upload; the setting-up of core investment scenarios; and staff training.

1.7.    The Warmer Homes Principal Policy, and Programmes Officers and a Data Analyst, will undertake training to enable their use of the product to support engagement with the programme. This engagement will include using the data held within the product to support the creation of briefing and internal communications, and to deliver focused publicity to eligible households across London. Access to the data will also enable the Warmer Homes team to undertake informed engagement with boroughs across London, to ensure the programme is reaching as many eligible households as possible. This, in turn, will enable the successful delivery and completion of the 2021-22 Sustainable Warmth Scheme funded project.

1.8.    Using single-source procurement is recommended due to Parity Projects’ unique ability to provide compatibility with the delivery of the Sustainable Warmth Scheme. Parity Projects is the leading supplier of data, analysis and modelling for net-zero and retrofit; and it has the most comprehensive datasets of the Greater London area that are relevant to the delivery of the project.
 

2.1.    Approval to purchase a one-year licence for Parity Projects Pathways product will allow the GLA to access data about the energy-efficiency of London Housing stock. The Pathways product is the only one of its kind available, with data collected from London’s 33 boroughs. 

2.2.    Access to the data will support the delivery of the Warmer Homes Programme. It will enable staff to undertake research to find households across London that are eligible for funding from the Sustainable Warmth Scheme.

2.3.    The data will be used to target eligible households through direct marketing and engagement sent from GLA. This will include a mass mailout in May 2022.

2.4.    The data will be used to work in partnership with the Boroughs to ensure we are reaching as many households as possible across London.

2.5.    Focussed engagement will support GLA in reaching its target of retrofitting 3,205 households with funding 
 

3.1.    Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the GLA is subject to the public sector equality duty and must have due regard to the need to: eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation; advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not; and foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not. Protected characteristics under section 4 of the Equality Act are age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sex orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (all except the last being “relevant” protected characteristics).

3.2.    The GLA will take appropriate steps to ensure there are no potential negative impacts on those with protected characteristics in relation to the development, design, targeting, marketing and delivery of the scheme. This will be done by ensuring compliance with the Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy; and developing and testing in line with GLA guidance on equalities and diversity. Those with protected characteristics will gain from the positive benefits of this scheme in equal measure, should their households be eligible; and there will be equality of access to participate in the delivery and benefit from the scheme, without discrimination. 

3.3.    The programme has been designed in line with the London Environment Strategy; the proposals therein were tested to ensure they had due regard to the public sector quality duty. The programme will target residents who are in or at risk of fuel poverty, and homes with poor levels of energy efficiency; and it will aim to promote holistic, whole-house energy-efficiency retrofits. The programme is therefore designed to advance equality of opportunity; and support those who are particularly vulnerable, whether as a result of their protected characteristics or other factors, such as their health or personal circumstances. It is therefore expected that this scheme will have a positive impact on lower-income and fuel-poor households directly through the home refurbishments. Indirect benefits are also anticipated by catalysing greater awareness of energy use and of the opportunities for people to reduce their energy consumption and bills, whilst protecting their health.
 

Links to mayoral strategies and priorities 

4.1.    Alongside its central role in delivering the Fuel Poverty Action Plan, this proposal also aligns with relevant actions in the London Environment Strategy; the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy; and the Health Inequalities Strategy. 

4.2.    Relevant recovery missions are as follows:

• A Robust Safety Net: the pandemic has impacted on Londoners’ incomes and household bills, and support from the Warmer Homes Programme will help to relieve hardship.
• A Green New Deal: Londoners living in fuel poverty are more likely to experience cold, damp homes. The Warmer Homes Programme supports access to funding for heating and insulation improvements.

 Key risks and issues

4.3.    Failure to receive approval would render the Warmer Homes Team unable to access data to support the team’s remit and/or the aims of the Sustainable Warmth project. This would ultimately have a negative impact on delivery.

Conflicts of interest

4.4.    There are no known conflicts to declare regarding those involved in the drafting or clearance of this form.
 

5.1.    The proposed expenditure of £40,000 on the purchase of an annual licence from Parity Projects for the Pathways product, as detailed within this report, will be funded from the 2022-23 Warmer Homes Revenue budget, held within the Environment Unit and as approved as part of the Authority’s 2022-23 budget process (MD2969). All appropriate budget adjustments will be made.

6.1.    The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Assistant Director concern the exercise of the Authority’s general powers; and fall within the Authority’s statutory power to do such things considered to further or that are facilitative of, or conducive or incidental to, the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London. In formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought, officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

• pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people
• consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom
• consult with appropriate bodies. 

6.2.    In taking the decisions requested, the Assistant Director must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation) and persons who do not share it; and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Assistant Director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

6.3.    The procurement of a licence of the Pathways product from Parity Projects is valued at £40,000. Section 9 of the Authority's Contracts and Funding Code (the Code) requires that the Authority undertake a formal tender process, or make a call-off from an accessible framework, for procurements with a value between £10,000 and £150,000. However, section 10 of the Code also provides that an exemption from this requirement may be justified on the basis that there is an absence of competition due to the uniqueness of the product or service. To that end, as the officers have set out in paragraphs 1.6 to 1.8, above, Pathways is the only product of its kind that provides a sufficient breadth of Greater London-specific data. Accordingly, the Assistant Director may approve the exemption, if she be so minded.