The Regional Retrofit Action Planning session hosted by the LGA aimed to provide delegates with the opportunity to hear how they might be able to increase the energy efficiency of a property by improving building fabric, walls, windows, floors, roofs, heating systems and restoring renewable energy where possible.
The Regional Retrofit Action Planning session hosted by the LGA aimed to provide delegates with the opportunity to hear how they might be able to increase the energy efficiency of a property by improving building fabric, walls, windows, floors, roofs, heating systems and restoring renewable energy where possible.
To reach net zero the UK’s housing stock will need to be carbon neutral by 2050. Councils are working hard to make their own housing stock more energy efficient, whilst building retrofit skills in the community to strengthen local supply chains. This webinar shared notable practice examples from experts and councils who are creating local green jobs in housing retrofit.
The webinar has been developed in collaboration with Sustainability West Midlands, an independent, not-for-profit organisation that works with all sectors. Their vision is to contribute to the national target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, whilst addressing regional and national health inequalities and driving inclusive growth.
The event was chaired by Tom Denman, Climate Change Adviser at the Local Government Association.
He was joined by:
- Sajid Butt, Strategic Skills Manager, Southampton City Council
- Dr Beck Collins, Senior Sustainability Adviser, Sustainability West Midlands
- Ron Beattie, Managing Director, Beattie Passivhaus
Sajid Butt, Strategic Skills Manager, Southampton City Council
Sajid introduced the talk by reflecting on the tendency when talking about retrofit can be limited to just focussing on purely retrofit issues without thinking about the wider systemic change that needs to be considered when transitioning to net zero. There is a need to make net zero and the green economy attractive to investors and funders. If there is to be a shift towards net zero, then there needs to be a shift in culture that fosters and develops capability and capacity whether from a social or economic lens.
The green skills agenda will evolve as the economy evolves.
Alan Wilson, Netzer0solutions
Netzer0solutions have been working on net zero solutions for a couple of years with a variety of local authorities and housing associations trying to deliver the consequences of decarbonisation, they are partnered with Southampton City Council.
Alan set the scene by noting that if the UK is to be net zero by 2050, we need to deliver 4,650 deep retrofits every working day starting from January 2022 to December 2049 or 1 million a year, every year. For example, a housing association with 23,000 properties may have budgeted £35,000 per retrofit but quotes for costs could be closer to £90,000. This is due to such things as material costs, but also capacity and capability within the workforce, currently there is a shortage of approximately 60,000 skilled people in the construction industry.
Netzer0solutions propose to deliver ‘Levelling Up’ as an intended and direct consequence of domestic retrofitting. This is achieved through the 5 stages below:
- Creating a joint venture (JV) with the overall objective to deliver high quality retrofits
- The JV directly employs local people including people from deprived local areas
- The Retrofit Hub utilises modern methods of construction
- The Retrofit Hub is scaled to meet growing demand from the privately owned sector
- A Retrofit Hub will have a halo effect
They have developed Net Zero training with Portsmouth City Council which is now available to support the development of the skillsets required to retrofit a property.
There are still issues with workforce enablers that needs to be resolved by bringing young people into the workforce with motivation and encouragement. The Joint Venture is an opportunity to directly employ local people from deprived areas and neighbourhoods focused on training specifically in retrofit with the emphasis of keeping the cost down but driving the value up.
Alan concluded with a call to arms by highlighting the biggest threats to a retrofit property is poor survey, poor design, poor installation, and the effect this has on the person in the property. Overheat and damp are the two problems that cause the most problems to residents.
Q&A from Alan Wilson:
The Climate Party insists we must be zero carbon by 2030 (to follow the science). It is necessary. Could we ramp up everything and put all our resource into achieving this in retrofit?
It is a worthy ambition but a) unlikely and b) likely to cause more problems as a result due to the lack of established resources - supply chain and skills - 2040 may be more realistic.
I would be interested to hear the Southampton plans for self-financing retrofitting on properties.
At present the enormous cost - could be offset through the surplus of retrofitting ‘able to pay’ properties. Total cost to retrofit Soton Postcodes - £2.5 billion (est)
Shortage of skills. Do you agree we should STOP newbuild housing and use ALL our resource on retrofit?
80 per cent of the properties that will exist in 2050 - have been built - this is where we should focus. New homes should not be built that need retrofitting subsequently!
We would really like to know how you went about setting up the Joint Venture - where did you start, and what partners did you bring to the table to be part of that JV?
We have started with a blank sheet of paper. The parties around the table vary in each JV - but the asset owner has the majority stake, us, and various charities, colleges. We have started with developing an agreed vision and a business plan - all being co-created from scratch. That way it is a true JV.
How do you get private landlords interested?
Legislation - their properties will be devalued and not available to rent if below EPC C. Additionally mortgages will become ‘carbon sensitive’ - i.e. they will take into account the cost to retrofit.
I am interested in that £35,000 full cost - what is it based on? Do costs change significantly if it is a stone built house or a system built concrete construction house or flat etc.
Sadly, it is an ‘average’ the true cost only comes from survey specification and the agreed outcome from the property EPC ‘C’ or ‘degree of net zero’ Every single property is a different proposition. This is part of the challenge (and cost)
Dr Beck Collins, Senior Sustainability Adviser, Sustainability West Midlands
SWM have been working with the LGA in delivering Local Retrofit Action Plan Training with the aim of helping local authorities increase their skills and capacity to deliver retrofit in their local areas. There are issues with skills, resources, and statutory powers.
The focus on this training was to build partnerships with the following three key themes:
- Developing partnerships with skills and training providers
- Developing partnerships with the retrofit supply chain
- Developing partnerships and engagement with communities
SWM began delivering this project over the summer working with the LGA to communicate with councils whilst also working with two further organisations SHAP and Contented. Together they delivered five technical briefings including:
Videos of these sessions are available
All the briefings were followed up by four coaching sessions which allowed local authorities to come together and talk about what they had learnt in the briefings and how they could imbed this in their councils.
The interest in this programme was overwhelming, 15 places were originally on offer but ended up with over 40 councils participating. Delegates only need to attend the sessions that were relevant to them with the idea of creating more capacity and skill within local authorities rather than developing one individual.
Various organisations worked with SWM and the LGA on the training including:
B4Box – a construction company and college on training and skills, Lovell – a contractor on supply chain and Retrofit Balsall Heath – communities. Challenges that were encountered involved the prominence of self-employed workers on zero-hours contracts who are insufficiently trained, tight timescales because of short term funding schemes and poor quality housing leading to risks to individuals.
The next steps with local authorities are to focus on ‘actions’ (dynamic) rather than ‘action plans’ (as static documents)
Q&A
Funding timelines and approaches are hard to meet especially with under-resourced Local Authority teams - how can we clearly influence government to ensure that these challenges don't stall retrofit?
The problem is that the funds have not been used to build the enablers.
Ron Beattie, Managing Director, Beattie Passivhaus
Retrofit is a huge problem with the UK's housing stock being amongst the least energy efficient in Europe and is responsible for nearly a quarter of our annual carbon emissions.
Four out of every five homes in the UK that we will be living in in 2050 have already been built. Therefore, retrofitting current housing stock to Zero Carbon plays a pivotal role in meeting the UK’s climate targets.
Climate change: Home energy demand currently accounts for around 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions and more than three-quarters of this demand comes from space and water heating.
Poor Quality: 2.6 million homes in England – 11% of the country’s housing stock – are categorised as ‘poor quality’ and therefore hazardous to occupants.
Cost to the NHS: BRE report finds poor housing is costing NHS £1.4bn a year. The costliest issue for the NHS (£857million p/a) is poor quality housing leading to excess cold
Fuel Poverty: In 2019, there were an estimated 13.4% of households (3.18 million) in fuel poverty in England.
House building in the country is very fragmented, there needs to be a new way of building that can deliver the highest quality of housing which can bring in young people into the industry. Thousands of people are leaving the industry each year and are not being replaced. To be able to build to zero carbon we need to find an easier way as well as a new way of doing things.
Beattie Passivhaus has 450 Passivhaus buildings built in the UK in various designs, materials and methods lasting anything from a year to 100 years, enabling the building of affordable homes for homeless people, recently building 48 zero carbon Passivhaus homes for homeless people in Cardiff. When retrofitting a property is done properly then there is a real reduction in carbon emissions. Retrofitting to Passivhaus standards is the best way to reduce carbon emissions and reduce fuel poverty.
Q&A
Is it unrealistic to go all in in terms of retrofit, such as retrofitting heat pumps, or biomass boiler? For most homes, wouldn't ensuring 30mm loft insulation, new boiler, good windows and doors make a big difference and be more palatable to property owners?
With the current rise in energy prices, that isn't making enough of a difference anymore. Fuel poverty numbers are going through the roof. The biggest part of the building envelope is the walls. So many homes are pre-1919 solid wall homes, and windows and insulated lofts is not enough - they're still freezing.
Passivhaus buildings are great but the biggest carbon emissions come from the construction industry. Are you including zero carbon construction in your thinking?
We do a complete carbon account in everything we do, using materials that have low carbon impact such as timber which is brought into the whole way we build.
What are the costs of installing and then running the mechanical ventilation? on a Beattie Passive retrofit?
Between £60k - £80k per house to do it properly but the more that can be retrofitted then the costs will reduce.
Please visit the LGA Climate Change Hub for more information. If you have any further questions please email [email protected]