Debt and decarbonisation: making net zero housing truly affordable
1 December 2025
A new report led by Tyndall Manchester explores how far reducing the cost of finance for housing associations could help meet Greater Manchester’s Truly Affordable Net Zero target of 30,000 low carbon social homes built in the region by 2038.
The report, by Tim Braunholtz-Speight, Claire Brown, Maria Sharmina and Carly McLachlan of the Tyndall Centre, with Mat Paterson of the Department of Politics, and Tom Archer of Sheffield Hallam University, finds that building to the TANZ energy efficiency standard could add up to £22k to the cost of building a typical social housing flat. However, this is less than 10% of the overall build cost. Meanwhile, housing associations working in Greater Manchester spend an average of 15% of their revenue on financing costs every year.
The new National Housing Bank will have £2.5bn to fund social housing development. If made available in grant funding, or even discounted loans modelled on existing Homes England or Scottish Government schemes, millions of pounds could be freed up to help tackle the crises of fuel poverty, housing affordability and climate change.
- Read the full report on the Reports page