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What I appreciated most about this round table was how engaging and practical it felt. We were digging into specifi c solutions, understanding their real-world applications, and thinking about how to connect innovation with delivery


Retrofi t is an entirely diff erent beast. T e costs can be prohibitive. You’re disrupting residents signifi cantly – in many cases requiring temporary decanting. And even if you manage to navigate all of that, resident acceptance tends to be low. People are understandably reluctant to have their homes signifi cantly disrupted for a heating system upgrade, even if you explain the long-term benefi ts. T e reality is that even if underfl oor heating improves the performance


of a heating system marginally, that benefi t may be outweighed by the cost, disruption, and resistance from residents. It’s a stark reminder that technical performance isn’t everything – the human and practical factors matter just as much, if not more, in retrofi t scenarios.


THE QUIET REVOLUTION IN MONITORING & DATA Perhaps the most exciting developments aren’t in new heating systems or insulation products, but in something less glamorous: monitoring and digital technologies. T ink about thermal performance monitoring, advanced airtightness testing,


and pulse technology. T ese tools allow us to understand buildings far more accurately than we could before. Instead of making educated guesses about heat loss or system sizing, we can gather actual data about how a building performs and what it genuinely needs. T is has enormous implications. If you’re planning to install a heat pump


down the line, having accurate monitoring equipment in place now means you can size that system properly based on real demand, not theoretical calculations. T at reduces risk, prevents oversizing (or undersizing), and ultimately leads to better outcomes. Airtightness is another area where technology is making a real diff erence.


Ventilation is absolutely critical when you improve a building’s fabric – get it wrong, and you risk condensation, damp, and unhappy residents. We used to rely solely on blower door testing, which is eff ective but can be expensive and logistically challenging at scale. Now, pulse technology off ers alternative approaches to demonstrate airtightness and inform ventilation strategies. T e beauty of these monitoring technologies is that they’re relatively cost- eff ective and scalable. If we can deploy them more widely, we start to de-risk


entire retrofi t portfolios. We move to knowing that measures will defi nitely be eff ective, because we have the data to prove it.


BRIDGING THE KNOWLEDGE GAP All of this brings me back to where I started: knowledge sharing. T e SMEs developing these solutions oſt en don’t realise the full value of what they’re off ering in the context of social housing schemes. T ey don’t realise that two EPC points can be transformational, or how to position their products within a larger delivery framework. Meanwhile, housing professionals and larger contractors aren’t always aware of the innovative solutions available. We tend to stick with what we know, what we’ve specifi ed before. T ere’s a clear need for more structured knowledge exchange. We need


platforms where SMEs can showcase innovative products – not just the ones that made it to this particular roundtable, but the full range of solutions being developed. We need to help smaller companies understand the procurement landscape and how to navigate it eff ectively. We need to accelerate the adoption curve by sharing what works (and what doesn’t) more openly.


MOVING THE CONVERSATION FORWARD What I appreciated most about this roundtable was how engaging and practical it felt. We were digging into specifi c solutions, understanding their real-world applications, and thinking about how to connect innovation with delivery. T e retrofi t sector is at an interesting infl ection point. We have ambitious


targets, increasing pressure to deliver, and a growing ecosystem of innovative companies developing real solutions. What we need now is to connect these dots more eff ectively – to help SMEs understand the market they’re trying to serve, to help housing providers discover the innovations that could transform their retrofi t programmes, and to create feedback loops that drive continuous improvement. T e solutions are out there. We must continue to fi nd them, share them, and


then scale them up. Based on what I saw at the round table, I’m optimistic that we’re moving in the right direction.


Alison Skillen is project director at RISE Housing Management & Maintenance Spring 2026


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