Social housing retrofit – we’re gaining momentum

“We have worked in occupied refurb for decades and have always known how critical it is that residents are informed and engaged. Our retrofit resident liaison officers have helped residents understand the technology being installed in their properties, helping to alleviate any concerns they may have. A huge benefit of retrofit is its role in combating fuel poverty; residents are at the heart of that and delivering to scale will only be possible if they are part of the journey.”

“Delivering an end-to-end retrofit service requires a breadth of skill that is going to fall short if more investment isn’t put towards training, and I’m not just referring to those qualified to the PAS2035 standard. We do need retrofit assessors and coordinators but we also need surveyors, designers, engineers, data analysts and resident liaison officers. Social housing retrofit is a completely new sector that will exist alongside other priorities; responsive maintenance, capital works and fire safety compliance are no less important so the workforce needs to grow to ensure these priorities continue to be delivered concurrently. The key to this will be linking in with the Government’s levelling up agenda. Ultimately, our job is to create healthy, safe and efficient homes but this isn’t a matter of buildings; it’s about communities and developing skills within communities will be fundamental to delivering retrofit to scale.”

“Social landlords are working towards the Government’s short-term target of achieving EPC C ratings for all social housing properties by 2030. But this is a mere forerunner for the longer-term target of carbon neutrality by 2050. That can be overwhelming when social landlords are already working hard to upgrade homes to EPC C standard, but we have found that the more high-quality data and intelligence we gather and the more we build up datasets on archetypes, the more efficient we become at planning, designing and delivering retrofit projects.

With PAS2035 guiding compliance, the standard is ensuring that our sector has a golden thread of information that will sit with the life cycle of the building and will therefore inform the steps taken to improve decarbonisation performance. So, while conducting retrofit assessments across a housing portfolio feels like an expensive exercise, it’s an investment that will inform all future works while providing a high standard that will elevate standards across the entire industry.”

“Social housing retrofit is centred around data, which enables precision when selecting which measures to install to increase a property’s efficiency. So, if PAS2035 is our ticket to a golden thread of information, we need to see technology developed and adopted that preserves that vital information. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) would ensure that asset data is retained to support sustainable housing creation. We should also, where viable, utilise technology that enables the building to tell us what’s working and what’s not. Our recent project for Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH) for example saw the team install Switchee Landlord Hub and Dashboard systems in 80 homes to enable NPH to remotely calibrate data to assess potential inefficiencies in their photovoltaic systems.”

“Ensuring compliance is one of the most vital aspects of retrofit. PAS 2035 gives us clear standards on how we survey, design and deliver compliance standards that are fit for the future. Hand in glove with this is PAS 2030 which will ensure we and our supply chain partners deliver works to exacting standards.

Ensuring that as a sector we have every level of our teams working to and meeting the standards required can only be a good thing to enable confidence in our sector. There is also a great opportunity here for the supply chain to upskill their workforce and grow their businesses, which will in-turn provide recruitment opportunities for local communities.”

“We are currently working with a number of our clients to support their bids for SHDF Wave 2 funding and this is where we have added most value to customers. Unless financed through capital investment, social housing retrofit funding can be very difficult to navigate. Understanding funding is integral for our customers’ projects but it also enables us to plan our resource. For our industry to grow its capabilities to the scale needed, we must have visibility of funding, whether from Government or capital budgets. Knowing what investment is in the pipeline, we will be able to build an industry equipped with the means and skills needed.

Likewise, Local Authorities and Housing Associations will need to embed retrofit into their long-term investment strategies; Government funding has been a solid kick-start for retrofit but robust financial planning will be fundamental to more long-term investment. To support this, we also need to see more innovative green finance solutions from the private sector as well as ensuring the sector has the procurement and delivery vehicles to deliver at scale.”