this is bbc news, we'll have the headlines and all of the main news stories at the top of the hour straight after this programme. i don't know where peoplei think we've got the money to pay all these bills. it's frightening, actually. this is a dual victorum exhaust heat pump.

sounds very fancy. it's not only about providing a nice living environment for people, it is about it being sustainable and affordable. hi, wendy. i knew from the moment he bought these properties that things were going to change. before this propertyjourney, i used to be a teacher. i played for a number teams — bristol city, reading, wolves. he weren't that good! that's why he was on the left. do you know what key it is? the only way to reduce bills is to spend more, which is a conundrum. so, cost—wise, what does that look like per year? £50 per year to run. i want this in my house.

so here we are. this is the latest project, the three coach houses in the middle. when did we purchase it? about a year ago now. this time last year. we actually met through our partners. the first time we met, i was in your seat watching your tv. i don't know normally how well that would go down. we just built a friendship from there. that friendship ended up evolving into a business, similar ideas, similar sorts of objectives. we need to think about how we carry out this renovation with as least disruption for the tenants.

yes, definitely. do you know what key it is? one of them gold ones. wish me luck. good detail. it's an incredible building. our gravelly hill site, we have an idea of what we're creating there in terms of the amount of units. what's definitely up for grabs is the detail, especially around heating systems, lighting systems, electrics, insulation. all of those things. the technical spec. we know people, family members, friends who have had difficult

experiences with housing — it has been close to home so we do we know people, family members, friends who have had difficult experiences with housing — it has been close to home so we do know that's an issue. so the main priority for us is to really try to keep the bills down — which at the moment, given the current cost of living crisis, is harder than ever. so we feel the only way is to try to get the buildings to be as efficient as possible. implementing different systems. this is our business and we need to make a profit, but at the same time it's important to make an impact and have a purpose. there's a lot to learn, it's something that's quite new to us. so it's a case of gathering as much information as we can, to make sure this building is as efficient as possible.

how are you doing? i'm well. have you noticed a big difference in how much you're paying for bills and stuff? i've gone from using £15| a week to 40 on electric, so monthly that's literally trebled nearly. _ currently, this is the flat you're in, but what we'd be looking to do is use the garage space as habitable space so you'll end up with 71 square metres. wow! i think it's fabulous, scott. we're just now trying to focus on the actual efficiency of the building to make sure it's as cost effective as possible to run because i know the bills are becoming a problem for a lot of people. we're hoping in a year's time

these buildings will be a lot cheaper to run and remain that way moving forward. fabulous. the plans look fabulous — i can't believe - you're going to use... i can't believe that. i knew from the minute - he bought these properties things were going to change on a rapid level. _ i'm really excited that he is going to be a lot of work. on these properties. so i'm really chuffed. i can't wait. the architecture's wicked. that corner glass there... did you say he's an architect? makes sense.

hello, there. really good to meet you. cameron and scott? welcome to the zero carbon house. - i'm really keen to see | more retrofitting done for all our cities, _ but particularly in birmingham and balsall heath. i think it's very much part of the solution i for the 21st century. a zero carbon house to me means cheap bills. i am guessing it is to do with the amount of carbon the property has omitted or is currently omitting. or is currently omitting. you're standing now in the uk's i first—ever zero carbon retrofit i house, but it's made up of two parts. _ this part here is an old house. 170 years old.

and over the far side is the new part. - 2009, just 13 years old. this was the old —| two up, two down. tiny little house, typical of. many of our victorian streets. so what we've done is we've taken a bit of floor space - and insulated on the insides here, but on the sides - and the back we've - insulated on the outside. so we don't lose the floor space. | that's one of our biggest drawbacks. we're working in lots of old buildings — part of our understanding of raising living standards, floor space is important. so this is the front - bedroom where we've got the old windows here. we've put a lining of insulation, and thisl is what we've used. it's a very eco material. it's basically— chewed up newspaper.

it's not expensive, and we've just pumped it in to the wall. so you've literally created a cavity? just pump it in under pressure. it makes like a big duvet. we have used it for the ceiling. i it's probably only an extra £5 per square metre to get - the extra thickness because all the other costs are fixed. - the roof has improved i the installation 25 times. the airtightness of the whole house has moved 28 times. i so the actual running costs of this building — what does that look like now? interesting question — we don't have any fuel bills here. - this house is not . consuming energy. it's generating more - energy than it consumes, and so suddenly fuel bills are a thing of the past. .

i would suggest for these you need to set yourselfl a target that you want at least 80% reduction in the energy. use of that house, - and that's achievable. we've gone 95% reduction here — maybe there are some things - here you think we can't go that far. _ but i would say 80% is easily doable. - the extra thickness of- insulation doesn't cost a lot, but the extra that will not off people's heating bills. - instead of a radiator in every room, that's what you need. j i think what he's done is the pinnacle. the comforting thing is he's done it with a retro fit. he is definitely utilised an old building, similar to the buildings we own. so there's no reason we can't try to replicate what he's done there, tailor it to what we need and come out with a hybrid

version that's the blueprint we roll out moving forward. i'm 81 years old now, - and it doesn't take a genius to notice how much things, especially electricity and, l you know, the utility that most people use are going up. - it is crazy. absolutely crazy. i don't know where peoplej think we've got the money

to pay all these bills. you'll have the new roof. you'll have the new windows and doors, and then you'll have the insulation on the outside of the house. it's all geared up, believe it or not, to keep the warmth in. but then you've got the circulation of air, so it gets rid of any damp and mould. a few weeks ago, i had - an enormous bill and it was frightening actually. when they started, we knew about it. i scaffolding went up and, - oh dear, oh dear, you wondered what they were going to do next. _

but as things have gone on, and it has been 12 months l and more, you can see that it's going to be viable. _ last but not least. there we go. we've been promised it'll be warmer for a start, . which is very nice to think about _ cos it's terrible — - terrible at the moment. in wintertime, it'd be warmer living in a tent in the field. - i'm just heading to site now, so i'll see you in about 20 minutes. so the project we're running down at all saints is going to cost in the region of 1.3 million. 500,000 of that is contributed by the government as a grant and the rest we are funding internally.

it's quite a complicated set of measures to put into a property. we want to make sure that our homes are genuinely affordable for people to heat. no tenant should be forced into choosing between whether to heat their home or buy their dinner. we live in a society that should be able to move away from that in this day and age. we have tenants who are having to choose between putting petrol in the car or buying food, and there's an irony there that you put petrol in the car to drive to work but you then can't spend money on food that you've worked for. you have to spend it just to get back to work and hope that you have something spare at the end of the month. it really is a situation that isn't good, and so we're committed as i say to try and do everything we can do to help that. ok, i can see some solar panels and freshly rendered properties here.

sam. yes, scott. good to meet you. how are you doing? cameron. good to meet you, cameron. good journey down? yeah, it was alright. we got lost but got here eventually. there were a few diversions through some farmland, dodging a few tractors and big vehicles but we're here. 0k, yeah, we made it. you made it one piece, . that's the important thing. coming from inner city birmingham, our social housing looks different so this was a surprise. like, hills and views and all of that, i was surprised. but you're from down here, though. not quite, bristol is a little bit more scenic than birmingham. i'd say it's still eye—opening to see this because social housing in bristol doesn't look like this either. shall we take a walk around | site and i'll talk you through what we've been doing?

yes, please. so how many properties did you say you have on this site? we've got around 30 properties on the site in total. _ these are electric boiler combinations? how are these...? so these are all electric. we don't have a mains gas - connection to these properties, so what we've done is we'vel upgraded the heating system with that in mind which is why we have selected an air- source heat pump. what have we got here, like spec and systems wise? so, starting from the top - to the bottom, we've upgraded the loft insulation, - new triple—glazed windows, new high performance doors, upgraded the ventilation - internally. we've also added the solar pv on the roof and air- source heat pump. so a fair bit has gone into it. so this is a two—bedroom house? yeah. have we got an indication of how well this will perform throughout the winter? so we've had comment from one of the tenants on site that -

they've seen their costs reduce for electricity to about one - third, between 25% and 30%, i as to what they were spending. 0k, which is really good. really good, really good. what would you say have been some of the kind of biggest hurdles with installing something like this? a lot of the technology that we've been - fitting is quite new. it's the first time we've - fitted it and the contractors themselves aren't particularly experienced in delivering - it at this time. most of the teething issues we've had haven't been - to do with the fabric, we've had those kind of relatively, you think, . simple issues like the hot water not kicking ml or the heating won't kick in or vice versa. yeah. if it was a gas boiler, - you'd get a heating engineer out and they could fix it very quickly. - so it's not the case ofjust calling a plumber now or having one of your electricians or whatever it is, it's actually somebody that understands that particular system? absolutely, absolutely. so that's something we would have to consider from a maintenance perspective. let me take you down —| we'll go and visit nancy.

one of the last properties. to be having the work done. there's been quite a bit of disruption on site. we started this project - during the end of the pandemic, and then following on with the supply chain issues . that we're still— experiencing as a sector. that has delayed work on site quite significantly at times. . you can see here i the installation that we've been fitting. what's the spec of this insulation? so it's 170mm thick, stonewall. that's interesting, cosjohn was saying 300mm and this is 170, so a lot thinner. and it's super—dense. yeah. we specified it to bring - the properties down to a heat demand of 50 kilowatt hours per metre squared. - yeah, makes sense. cosjohn was going for zero, wasn't he? yeah. but i think ultimately trying to reduce the bills, that's the main objective. yeah. if you can get them down two thirds, which is what you said earlier, like, who can complain? i think i had anxiety about the installation of 300, but seeing the smaller one

and understanding that it has benefits... simon was saying about the teething problems and even the supplies are not that familiar with the system so it is still new to them so getting people to get out to maintain these things has been quite difficult. the best thing is probably to up skill our guys and get them familiar with the systems, they are restoring the system so they will know... how it went in and what could go wrong potentially and why.

in the next handful of years, i don't see how we don't and up in the new bills and doing both. retro fittings and land and building. i think they are actually building it to the future home standards which is really interesting because if we are looking to go down that path, building new builds, we really want to get ahead of the regulation that is coming in. tony, scott, good to meet you. this is one of our- future home scheme. they are many finished but we have got lots going on inside. i

we are really interested in looking at different. technologies. for me, one of the key| challenges is the actual usability. i'm excited to take a look. this is a dual victorum exhaust heat pump. sounds fancy. it takes the heat out - of the air and converts it through various processes into hot water. _ they have been essentially a handful of these instilledj in the country, so these are some of the first- and we are keen to see how they work in reality. - this is the system that will be put in place to replace boiler systems. yes, it produces hotl water for the cylinder and through the heating and that is distributed . to underfloor heating. so the aim is essentially

to have the heating on low consistently as opposed to turning it up and down. yes, exactly. these systems work so well that this one, particularly, i is 500% efficient so for every unit of energy, you put in, i you get five units of heat out so it brings the electric carsl down lower than gas. this is incredible. we have done this research on this type of technology but seeing it in action, it makes sense how we can implement it on our sites. can we some pictures? yes, of course, go ahead. say cheese! we always had problems with cupboards and the older properties so this is perfect, rather than having boarded up cupboards or trying to add a awkward shaped space

to a room. so, cost wise, what does that look like per year? once again, based on the design data, these properties _ could cost around £50 a year to run. - £50 a year to run a single unit? yes. that is unbelievable. that is actually unbelievable. i have to put this on my house! i am super impressed with what we have seen, it is a lot different to what we thought. we thought it would be more kind of futuristic materials and things that we have not seen or they are hard to come across but they have used your general building brick and block. they actually look like the systems we've currently

got, which makes this really achievable. yes, and even though there is a big upfront costs, tony has told us that to run one of these units now, £50 a year, i thought it was actually £50 a year, and it is £50 a month of —— £50 a year. —— i thought it was actually £50 a month but it is £50 a year. and we have tenants that are currently spending 40 to £50 a week. the biggest thing for me is the installation. ——the biggest thing for me is the insulation. probably go with thinner insulation on the front of the property but we can implement that on the back of the property. providing power to the property. recess into the roof. this experience has been really good, i have learnt so much across the different sites.

we will use definitely the solar panels, the hybrid system they had at edgbaston, that is definitely something we have looked at implementing. those other things we took away from sites we went to. i do see these in late solar panels. you can see they are there and they look good. 0n the front of the property, we want to try to keep as much at the original facade, the original features, we don't really want to spoil what is there because we like that. we know there is an added cost, we have to factor that in so we might say, £1 million renovation which is likely going to be the case that gravelly hell, that is probably 150,000 excess on top of that to implement some of the systems that we would like to put in to reduce the bills.

we are into profits or savings, however — we are into profits or savings, however we look at it. we have a date — however we look at it. we have a date at — however we look at it. we have a date at the end of september and then— a date at the end of september and then we are hoping to start work— and then we are hoping to start work in — and then we are hoping to start work in the first quarter of next — work in the first quarter of next year. what we are doing at gravelly hill is exciting. i want _ gravelly hill is exciting. i want to— gravelly hill is exciting. i want to see it in full view. the — want to see it in full view. the thing _ want to see it in full view. the thing i am looking forward to the — the thing i am looking forward to the most is seeing the impact _ to the most is seeing the impact it has on the tenants and — impact it has on the tenants and saying if it is life changing for them.

hello there. our exceptionally mild spell of november weather is set to stick around for another few days. there's also a lot of dry weather on the cards, but we have got some rain across the far northwest of the uk. not only is it very mild out there, but it will also feel windy once again through friday. so, we've got high pressure towards the southeast, and this waving weather front in the northwest — that combination of weather systems means our winds are coming in from the southwest. so, from a very warm direction, we're drawing up this warm air from the azores right up towards the uk, you can see the orange colours

on the map there. so, a very, very mild start to friday morning. on average, we'd expect overnight lows this time of year to be between about 3—6 celsius north—to—south — but overnight temperatures at the moment between about 13—15, so a good ten degrees or even more than that above average for the time of year. so, very mild to start things off, also fairly cloudy for most of us. we will see rain initially for the western isles and parts of highland — that area of rain will track eastwards across scotland and northern ireland through the day, becoming lighter and patchier as it does so. england and wales predominantly dry, the odd spot of drizzle in the west, best of the sunshine towards the east. but gusts of wind once again, a realfeature — 30—a0mph for many of us, 50mph across parts of scotland and through the irish sea, too. and temperatures 16—17 for most of us, but as high as 19 celsius for the northeast of scotland, probably the warmest spot during armistice day on friday. so, through the day, then, we'll be seeing this area of rain moving a bit further south for a time, and then, starting to return northwards overnight and on into saturday morning, so still very mild, not quite as mild as first thing friday morning, though. we're down into single figures across parts of scotland. so, through the day

on saturday, there's that area of rain clearing to the north, slowly, just sitting up towards the northern isles for longest. but elsewhere, after mist and fog clear away from parts of england and wales, should be a bit more sunshine coming through. lighter winds than we've seen, 17—18 towards the south, mid—teens further north. and for remembrance sunday, again, largely dry and settled. some early mist and fog, which should clear away from the vale of york, welsh marches, for instance, as well. lighter winds not quite as warm, but we're still looking at temperatures well above average, 13—17 celsius. probably the last of the dry and warm—feeling days, because things are set to turn cooler and more unsettled as we head through next week. bye for now.

i was welcome to i was bbc news, i'm lucy grey. our top stories. an army on the move — ukraine says its making major gains around kherson, a day after russia announced its withdrawal from the southern city. police in australia investigate the killing of an aboriginal teenager — the prime minister calls the attack racially motivated. still too close to call — two days on from the us midterm elections, who controls the senate still hangs in the balance. and the volcanic island providing an out of this world experience for europe's trainee astronauts.

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