26 ROUND TABLE REVIEW
Building Insights LIVE: Exploring solutions for residential deep retrofi t
All images © Mikey Pooley
and initiatives like the Retrofi t Academy and ational Retrofi t Hub to develop the holistic retrofi t approaches that will work. Questions abound such as how to engage the UK’s 10-12 million owner-occupiers with large-scale retrofi t programmes, beyond grant-funded projects, and our delegates offered practical insights informed by experience. These included how SME builders can benefi t from refocusing on retrofi t, in a challenging new build market, and why it’s vital that whole-house and not piecemeal measures are prioritised. Our round table aligned with the Construction Leadership Council’s ‘national strategy’s second phase of “education of householders and the wider industry through clear communications.” The group we assembled had the credentials to give a no-nonsense appraisal of the proposed ways forward.
INTRODUCTION Attendees:
Samantha Organ, associate professor in Building Sustainability, University of West of England
Russell Smith, director, Retrofi tWorks
Nik Nelberg, co-founder, Earl & Calam Design and Build
Jack Ostrofsky, programme director, Retrofi t London
David Pierpoint, CEO, The Retrofi t Academy CIC
David Adams, strategic advisor & director, AdamsD Consulting Becky Lane, CEO, Furbnow
Kate Simpson, associate professor, Nottingham Trent University
Ashley Cooper, managing director, WMS Underfl oor Heating (event sponsor)
Alex Baines, head of Building Better at British Gypsum & Isover (event sponsor; Saint Gobain Construction Products UK)
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
The construction industry is confronting the ‘green elephant in the room,’ namely the challenge of reducing the carbon emissions of our existing housing stock at a much larger scale. The stats are daunting – to reduce CO2
emissions by the
required 80% by 2050 to hit net zero, our 27 million homes need to be upgraded at a rate of one and half every minute. The topic was of a suitable weight to bring together housebuilders, retrofi t experts and different ends of the supply chain, in a Building Insights LIVE round table to explore challenges and solutions collaboratively. The event took place on 22 May 2024 and was sponsored by WMS Under oor Heating and Saint Gobain Construction Products UK, who both offered vital supplier-side perspectives. A long-promised Government national
retrofi t strategy remains elusive, and initiatives like the Green Deal and Green Homes Grant have foundered amidst misselling allegations and installation problems. Currently it is left to industry
UNLOCKING HOME RETROFIT AT SCALE The fi rst part of the debate looked at attendees’ views on the current state of progress on retrofi t at scale, including the remaining skills gap in the industry, and why takeup of training places had proved challenging in some areas. Delegate ik elberg, a south London-based builder who has pivoted to specialise in retrofi ts, said he was grappling with a double-whammy of “a lack of skilled people and engagement.” However, elberg was using fellow attendee Russell Smith’s Retrofi tWorks software not only to make retrofi t pay, but also to help homeowners see the benefi ts, and give them a proper cost. All delegates were asked to propose a question for the debate. Sponsor attendee Alex Baines (from British Gypsum/ Isover) challenged the group: “Is there a problem with terminology in the industry, such as are whole-house/holistic retrofi t approaches being mistaken as ‘doing the building in one go’ He said that such misunderstandings were holding both housebuilders and homeowners back from engaging in retrofi t.
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