Durkan Regen hosts the Warm Homes Plan Workforce Taskforce at the site of pioneering skills development programme
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ) Warm Homes Plan Workforce Taskforce heard from the team at Maitland Park Estate in Camden, learning about a pioneering and accelerated ‘training-to-work’ programme for retrofit skills.
This training programme is being delivered by regeneration specialists Durkan Regen (who are future-proofing homes for residents at Maitland Park on behalf of Camden Council) as part of a wider set of skills programmes that have been developed in partnership with L&Q and The Skills Centre across Durkan Regen sites. The programme is of particular interest to the Taskforce given its strategic mission to facilitate the creation of a diverse, highly skilled and resilient workforce to deliver up to 5 million home upgrades by 2030.
The five-week programme focusses on training in high demand retrofit skills areas – such as wall insulation, roofing, cladding, window replacements and fire protection – and specifically targets people facing barriers to employment.
The Taskforce had the opportunity to learn more about the retrofit training-to-work programme and understand how it is making genuine headway in bridging the gap between training and secure employment, with the first two pilot programmes to offer guaranteed jobs for learners starting in June 2026.
The Taskforce also heard from the key partners involved – Durkan Regen, L&Q, Bauder, The Skills Centre, DWP and sustainable employment specialists Gement Connect – on the specifics of the programme, why it is successful and how this model could be scalable and replicable to the benefit of the wider construction sector.
Martin McCluskey, Minister for Energy Consumers at DESNZ and Co-chair of the Warm Homes Plan Workforce Taskforce, said:
“The Workforce Taskforce will play an essential role in facilitating the creation of a diverse, skilled and resilient workforce.
“Getting a first-hand look at Durkan Regen’s pioneering retrofit programme highlighted the importance of our clean power mission and the opportunities it provides for skilled jobs.
The Warm Homes Plan will support up to 180,000 new jobs by 2030. Over the next 18 months, the Taskforce will be drawing on similar expert insight to enable those new jobs to be high-quality, well-paid and future-proofed.”
Kevin O’Connor, Head of Social Value Delivery at Durkan Regen and co-lead of the work to develop the accelerated ‘training-to-work’ programme, added: “It was a real privilege to host the Taskforce and demonstrate how, with the right approach, it’s absolutely possible to develop specialist skills quickly and in a targeted way that connects people with real jobs and fills critical skills gaps.
“We’ve been able to show how these schemes can do so much more too, particularly for the local communities around our projects. We can support those who find it difficult or even impossible to move into a career in construction. It’s a holistic approach and the scheme is already delivering great results, so it was a fantastic opportunity to share this with the Taskforce as it looks for innovative solutions that deliver practical results.”
The Retrofit Skills training-to-work Programme has been developed to look at new ways to fast-track people into gaps in the supply chain, and stands out for supporting people who face barriers to employment, including people not in education, employment or training, ex-offenders and the long-term unemployed.
Critically, the programme works closely with supply chains from the start to define the precise skills required for roles, aligning training content with employer needs and maximising the likelihood of sustained employment. Crucially, the programme moves successful trainees straight into employment in the supply chain on live projects, so they can immediately contribute to delivering successful decarbonisation upgrades in line with the government’s Warm Homes Plan.
Following this meeting, and over the next 18 months, the Taskforce, co-led by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), is working to develop outputs and outcomes, drawing on expert insight, technologies and initiatives, to build the workforce needed to best deliver the Warm Homes Plan