ROUND TABLE REVIEW 27
The Retrofit Academy’s David Pierpoint said the industry “had been a victim of jargon; we need to reinvent the terms ‘whole-house’ and ‘fabric first’ retrofit. Becky Lane of Furbnow said that from her firm’s experience, the term ‘retrofit’ doesn’t mean anything to the average person.”
Ashley Cooper of round table sponsor WMS Underoor Heating said that end users are getting a lot better educated” on the home energy impacts, which had partly been driven by the cost of living crisis. However, Cooper warned that jargon was a major stumbling block for not only users but also politicians and even new build-focused industry professionals trying to grapple with retrofit. There is so much for politicians to take in, they’re not construction- oriented, so they kind of get lost. We have to make it simpler for them.” ack Ostrovsky from Retrofit London, which works to drive retrofit across London councils, drew the distinction on simplifying jargon between “dumbing it down” and “making it smarter, communicating the differences by being clear and concise.”
David Pierpoint said that takeup from construction trades had been “inconsistent,” which was in line with an inconsistency in (previous) Government policy and initiatives. And David Adams added that progress in social housing, although larger than in owner-occupier projects, had been “tiny,” adding “we are not in the ballpark of where we need to be, and that is a failing of Government. On takeup, what were the retrofit skills gaps, and should training bodies be collaborating, or ‘retraining’ construction trades; and what are the incentives that work Becky Lane of Furbnow said that from experience working at the smaller end of the market, they were getting “tens of enquiries per day from companies wanting to join our framework, from installation specialists trying to move into the self-funded market, to general builders looking at the opportunity.” However, she said there was a lot of confusion about how to transition to retrofit, how to do insurances, and particular training needs.” Lane added that while major national bodies were providing advice, people were coming to her firm for that info. ik elberg agreed, saying building firms were coming to him for advice, and “there is so much confusion. He advocated demystifying the subject by looking it not as retrofit but simply as construction. He said “We start talking about installation, people start sweating.”
Nelberg said there were further issues to resolve to create a culture change for builders for a holistic approach to retrofit.
“You’ve got egos, everyone is trying to hold their position, and there is not a set system of pricing,” he said, adding that customers were petrified, largely because builders are not licensed.” Alex Baines from Saint-Gobain Construction Products UK said that the ational Retrofit Hub was tackling this, because it’s “bringing people together with one purpose – of making it better.”
Being able to sacrifice business hours for retraining in retrofit is a challenge David Pierpoint said that general builders only made up around 5% of current Retrofit Academy students, It’s cladding, lagging lofts, filling cavities, heat pumps, solar PV, that’s not what they do,” but adding that this is where “there is an opportunity.”
On top-down versus bottom-up solutions and strategies, Jack Ostrovsky said he that the big uptake issue was that it’s “demand led, but that contractors are “afraid to take time out of their day to do their MCS 200 certification nobody is asking for solar PV.”
David Adams said that different drivers were needed to stimulate demand on a sustained basis, so the industries have confidence this is a good thing to get into, at scale. He said however that a “big rush” wouldn’t be helpful, as witnessed with the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, which caused a massive overheating of the market. He added that the previous Government had been “banking on heat pumps.” Samantha Organ commented that what was needed was “bottom up and top down, you can’t have one without the other.” She continued: “You need the strategy and framework,” but individual players in the industry have “some really excellent measures. David Adams again stressed the need for a “sustained future” pipeline of retrofit work to provide a steady business stream for the industry. A narrow focus on energy efficiency may not be appropriate, said Alex Baines, asking Is retrofit being hindered by the focus on energy efficiency savings and carbon reduction targets He suggested there was a vicious circle of “you can’t drive things if there isn’t the demand, but we don’t have the demand because people don’t actually know what they want, and there’s no way for them to work it out. He said that a lot of it is down to policy, we have a single-minded focus on energy, but that’s not how homeowners make decisions.” Russell Smith said the industry was rife with inefficiencies people trying to do similar things with the same houses, and not working together. He gave a contrasting example in the north west, working across local authority jurisdictions to identify where the grid
(L-R) Jack Ostrovsky, David Adams, Russell Smith
“END USERS ARE GETTING A LOT BETTER EDUCATED ON ENERGY, BUT THERE IS A LOT OF RETROFIT JARGON”
ASHLEY COOPER, WMS UNDERFLOOR HEATING
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
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