A construction industry round table held recently in London outlined how a new government needed to urgently address problems in the sector in order to get close to the target of retrofitting 27 million homes by 2050 to hit net zero.
netMAGmedia’s fourth Building Insights LIVE round table looked at solutions for the UK’s challenges on delivering large-scale retrofit to increase homes’ energy efficiency in both the public and private sector. It discovered industry and local authorities have struggled with the problem post-Covid, facing cost inflation, a stigma against retrofit measures from previous government programmes, and issues around terminology. The Construction Leadership Council estimates the retrofit work required amounts to £525bn worth of construction.
With a legacy of policy failures such as the Green Deal and Green Homes Grant, the Government has long promised a national retrofit strategy to make a real difference at scale, however with this still absent, the industry has had to devise its own strategies, and gatherings such as this round table are essential for identifying the most pragmatic approaches.
Representatives were present from national retrofit organisations, housebuilding and academia included Nik Nelberg, head of Earl & Calam Design and Build and Federation of Master Builders London board member, and consultant and National Retrofit Hub board member David Adams, who was also formerly on the board of Wilmott Dixon.
The round table was sponsored by WMS Underfloor Heating, and Saint Gobain Construction Products UK, who were represented in the discussion, respectively, by WMS managing director, Ashley Cooper, and Alex Baines, head of building better at British Gypsum and Isover. Baines told the delegates that the risk that construction firms will undertake in retrofit projects “is a lot bigger than people are aware of,” but praised the efforts of organisations driving collaboration such as the National Retrofit Hub.
The other delegates were Samantha Organ, associate professor in Building Sustainability, University of West of England, Russell Smith, director, RetrofitWorks & Parity Project, Jack Ostrofsky, programme director, Retrofit London, David Pierpoint, CEO, The Retrofit Academy CIC, Becky Lane, CEO, Furbnow, and Kate Simpson Associate Professor, Nottingham Trent University. The meeting at the Building Centre, London, was chaired by editor of Housebuilder and Developer magazine, James Parker.
Nik Nelberg gave a personal perspective on how his firm had made the transition from general builder to specialising in retrofitting homes to a high standard as a design and build contractor, and how the business had benefited from being able to expand its offer to customers. He said this was an opportunity to increase builders’ reputation and consumer trust: “The way we’ve got there is through opening our minds, changing from the ‘we’ve done this for years’ mentality, to charging a proper price for this work, so it’s a sustainable business.”
Attendees discussed London’s approach to large-scale retrofit, and its goal of EPC level C for all social rented homes. However, Jack Ostrovsky revealed that a large proportion of Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund grants have not been taken up. He also shared data that showed that in the past two years, by contrast, London Boroughs had spent £1.2bn on “asset management and maintenance,” showing the case for deep retrofit to upgrade homes.
Questions were submitted by the panel, including whether the next Government needed to intervene in order to drive sluggish retrofit demand, in the light of recent failed policy initiatives. Samantha Organ asked whether there was a ‘sweet spot’ between carbon saving goals in retrofit, cost and resilience, and this notion was questioned by delegates.
Nik Nelberg questioned how the industry could “allow collaborative delivery of better standards,” and David Pierpoint focused on construction skills, asking “To what extent are existing skills gaps the cause of existing retrofit projects and programmes failing to deliver their objectives?” Pierpoint added: “We need a training programme for SMEs that covers the full cost of that training, to take away the barriers to entry.”
The group looked at what an incoming government would need to do to drive retrofit, David Adams recommending they introduce a reduction in stamp duty to incentivise homeowners, but not “set a problem for Government,” and “come up with a drumbeat for owner-occupiers on which everything else can hang.” He added that the national approach should not be “all things to all people,” and that construction professionals “should not jump in with two feet, as it’s too risky.”
Alex Baines asked whether there were issues with terminology which were preventing takeup across the UK, such as “is the holistic ‘whole-house approach’ to retrofit being mistaken to mean do the ‘whole building in one go’?
Russell Smith of RetrofitWorks, echoed by other delegates, said that it was essential that care was taken to identify the right retrofit approaches, despite the lag in takeup – “if we start pushing really hard on the wrong stuff, that makes things even worse.” He added that the industry “needs to think less about tactics, more about strategy.” Kate Simpson suggested that the current national approach wasn’t going far enough, and urged consideration of benefits beyond energy-efficiency, to consider “resilient and future-proof homes that are safe and healthy to occupy in future climate scenarios.”
The group looked at whether collaboration was occurring to a high enough level, including between the national retrofit organisations and training bodies, including to build awareness among the industry and customers. Ashley Cooper of WMS advocated a simpler approach to clarify the objectives to householders, and asked “can we get the bodies together to simplify the top priorities, and our messages, to the Government.”
James Parker, managing editor at netMAGmedia and chair of the event, commented: ”Retrofitting our existing 27 million homes is the ‘green elephant in the room,’ and our round table was a crucial opportunity for builders, product manufacturers and retrofit experts to come together to interrogate the practical solutions already proposed. This was a frank discussion of what is required both now and from the incoming government to make large-scale retrofit of homes a reality, and learn from the past.”
The full report on the round table, as well as a podcast capturing some of the key moments, will be available at: insights.netmagmedia.co.uk