28 ROUND TABLE REVIEW Alex Baines of
British Gypsum/ Isover
“wouldn’t cope with the demand from heat pumps, and where it would need reinforcing. He said huge savings were immediately reaped from doing surveys, collecting data and doing smart things in homes together.”
Nik, Samantha and Jack David Adams gives his view
Alex Baines cited the 2024 BRE report which estimated there could be between 1.bn and 2.bn savings to the HS from tackling poor quality housing. Ostrovosky warned however that “if you are not careful with what you do, you will have bad outcomes, e.g. moisture.” Necessary know-how on unintended consequences of retrofits like moisture was not universally available; Nik Nelberg said that lack of understanding of this factor had led to his housebuilding firm shying away from retrofit previously. Ostrovsky said that despite the massive benefits of retrofitting social housing at scale, a third of London Boroughs had not drawn down the available Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund grants for retrofit schemes, potentially because of the concurrent investments needed, such as Retrofit Coordinators under PAS20 retrofit guidance. He asserted the SDHF was the biggest driver for retrofits, but the capital’s G1 group of housing associations had only spent £50m on retrofit over the past two years.
“WE SHIED AWAY FROM RETROFIT FOR MANY YEARS BECAUSE WE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND MOISTURE IN BUILDINGS”
NIK NELBERG, EARL & CALAM DESIGN AND BUILD
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
POLITICS & OTHER BLOCKERS Delegates shared thoughts on what the new Government should prioritise to encourage large-scale up of retrofit, among both owner-occupiers and social housing tenants. David Adams said “the only strategy that counts is at the government scale; we will get there in 100 years if we think changing the name of retrofit is going to incrementally move us on a little bit.” Becky Lane asserted that better terminology was key, because “the thing that is missing in local plans is awareness of demand and supply.” Adams also warned that difficult choices are going to have to be made in terms of the grid, there will be winners and losers,” and advocated informing the areas who will lose out as early as possible. Alex Baines said that currently government schemes have been focused on different priorities to those of consumers, and “focus on the measures rather than outcomes, ventilation is not a funded measure; we need to switch to an outcomes-based approach.” Samantha Organ said schemes such as the Green Homes Grant, including ‘approved measures’ were “well meaning incentives and policies, but they have to be supported by industry.” Adams said that with a change of Government and a “different mindset” the industry risked “being stuck in the paradigms of the last 14 years.”
Arguably the owner-occupier sector is the missing link in the retrofit chain currently, but David Adams said that the ational Retrofit Hub has (together with UKGBC and other bodies) looked at all the kinds of drivers a politician could get their head around for health, wellbeing and energy,” and concluded it was “nudging stamp duty up and down based on the energy performance of the dwelling.”
Alex Baines added that the current model of “chasing EPC targets” was a huge detriment to the retrofit market,” and wider metrics including location, schools, and other factors were needed. He said however the real blockers are around consumer protection; warranties fundamentally do not protect the consumer.”
Samanatha Organ said that removing some upfront costs would be critical in “avoiding undermining trust” among customers, but Becky Lane warned that mortgage lenders supporting “green financing would tend to drive toward single measure approaches,” rather than more holistic retrofits.
MAKING THE RIGHT INTERVENTIONS The second session of the debate delved further into the practical solutions to retrofitting existing homes at scale, and their pros and cons, as well as their feasibility. It looked at the usefulness of the established ‘archetypes’ approach to grouping types of retrofits in social housing, and where this could realistically be applied to make gains at scale. David Adams said that the industry needed a starting point for retrofit, “because if everyone does everything from first principles, we’re not at scale, and everyone going for the ‘sweet spot is too simplistic. He said that employing archetypes was one route, and Samantha Organ agreed it was a useful starting point, but “at a very aggregated level, it’s not supposed to be a specification. Russell Smith said it could helping reduced the current complexity of retrofit options for professionals and customers, and other delegates agreed that simplifying the information was essential. Jack Ostrovsky said that the issue was the subject of “intense debate” within the ational Retrofit Hub, but it was “collectively worth working on.” Although some standardisation was welcome, delegates said that solutions did need to be tailored to the wide range of homeowner types involved, which complicates the issue of the appropriateness of retrofit solutions. There was agreement that homeowner or resident comfort needed to be emphasised as the overall goal.
Becky Lane wondered whether
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