Tijn Croon, European Commission (Views are personal)
Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of researching, among other things, how social housing providers (SHPs) across France, the Netherlands and the UK engage with the challenge of fuel poverty. Funded in part by the Fuel Poverty Research Network’s EPEC programme, this research aimed to explore how SHPs make sense of their role in tackling this condition among their tenants, particularly as Europe’s net-zero ambitions accelerate.
This work formed part of RE-DWELL, my Marie Curie research project, which brought together early-career researchers and practitioners from across Europe to explore the intersection of affordability and sustainability in housing. The programme’s strong emphasis on transdisciplinarity encouraged us to actively bridge the gap between academic research and real-world practice, a principle that shaped both the process and goals of this project.
In an open access journal article in Energy Policy (co-authored with Dr. Joris Hoekstra and Dr. Ute Dubois) published in 2024, we unpack how SHPs navigate sometimes competing policy logics around decarbonisation, affordability, and access. Alongside the article, a white paper published by the European Federation for Living (EFL) offers an accessible summary of the key takeaways and policy recommendations.
Houses in Tonbridge, Kent UK. The house on the right has been retrofitted. Photo by author.
While academic impact is often measured in citations, I’ve found the more meaningful moments to be those in which the work sparked reflection and even action among practitioners.
A secondment at Clarion Housing during my PhD, working closely with Elanor Warwick and Kathy Ellis, was invaluable in deepening my understanding of how SHPs operate in practice, especially through field visits to Wisbech and Tonbridge, which offered a first-hand look at how retrofit projects are experienced on the ground. I provided reflections on this experience in a blog post published by the RE-DWELL project.
At a summer workshop hosted by EFL in Bochum, Germany, I presented some early findings to a network of housing professionals. One of the attendees was Rachel Tan, then Head of Strategic Research at L&Q, another large SHP from the UK.
In a follow-up email, Rachel wrote:
“You really got me thinking about the ‘social component’ of fuel poverty and the need and opportunity to involve, and target certain residents as part of our transition to net zero… Your name and your research came up again just this week as it has stirred some thinking here at L&Q, following a really awful case… It is cases like this that highlight the need to understand that piece around ‘participation in society’ and the barriers and circumstances that lead to this.“
Her words stayed with me, and reflect what we hoped the work might contribute to: opening space to think more critically and empathetically about the lived realities behind technical interventions.
Across France and the Netherlands as well, several SHPs indicated in follow-up conversations that the research had sparked internal discussions. Some began revisiting existing data to better identify households at risk of fuel poverty; others re-evaluated how they communicated with tenants around retrofit plans. While these shifts often occurred informally and without fanfare, they represent important steps in reframing the fight against fuel poverty as a social prerequisite to accelerating the necessary Renovation Wave.
As I’ve recently transitioned into a new role working on the Social Climate Fund at the European Commission, I carry forward many of the lessons from this project. Namely, that SHPs are not just implementers of energy efficiency policy, but often translators, mediators, and advocates for their tenants. And that meaningful policy impact often begins in quiet conversations, in moments of recognition and reflection.
My thanks to the Fuel Poverty Research Network for their support, and to the many practitioners who generously shared their time and insights over the past few years.
Tijn received funding through FPRN’s Energy Poverty in Earrly Career programme.