Climate change has always been a priority for RetrofitWorks’ Director, Russell Smith. He founded the not-for-profit on the basis of providing an easily-adopted model for improving the UK’s housing stock through environmentally friendly repairs, maintenance and improvements. Russell tells us about how this model is now playing its part in the UK’s green agenda.

When we first embarked on this journey, “retrofit” was a word only known to those directly involved in the industry. Since the launch of the Green Homes Grant, it is understood by many more and as the UK (and indeed the world) makes strides towards addressing climate change, it’s becoming part of everyday vocabulary. When you look at the facts you understand the importance of addressing the energy efficiency of UK housing: our homes use around 35% of all the energy on the grid and emit around 20% of the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.

The Green Homes Grant is the government’s first bid at meeting the enormous task of upgrading of over a million buildings a year through retrofit, as part of their Net Zero Carbon By 2050 pledge. While it is good news that the scheme has been extended by 12 months (now running to 31^st March 2022) and a further £1m has been added, it’s still not enough. There is growing frustration that the deadline is too short to make an impact, and that there is a lack of approved installers to complete the work. The other issue is around quality: many new ‘Green Homes’ companies were created in the weeks following the initial announcement, but most with no prior experience of retrofit or even home renovation.

RetrofitWorks has been lobbying about the importance of skills and quality for a long time, but we seem to be turning a corner. As with the term retrofit becoming more widely recognised, we are beginning to address the enormity of the work required to meet the zero carbon promise.

Skills

On 12^th November, the newly created Government-led Green Jobs Taskforce met for the first time with the objective to create 2million green jobs by 2030, to aid the UK’s transition to net zero carbon. Co-representing the construction sector, RetrofitWorks is part of that taskforce.

Together, the taskforce will set the direction for the job market as we transition to a high-skill, low carbon economy and housing is an important part of the agenda.

Consider in addition to the 20% contribution our homes make to carbon dioxide emissions, more than 80% of those existing homes will still be standing and occupied in 2050. 

This equates to 27million homes that need upgrading.RetrofitWorks has already calculated 35,000 Retrofit Coordinators are needed to oversee the delivery of these improvements: just one example of the opportunity we have to create diverse and good quality green jobs.

Quality

Quality plays an essential role in delivering the environmentally friendly repairs, maintenance and improvement works that are required to make the UK’s homes fit for purpose. RetrofitWorks is a Trustmark scheme and is founded on the promise of A Plan for Every Home, bringing together the best in green building practice. While the Green Home Grant doesn’t demand it – an oversight in our opinion –