It is generally acknowledged that buildings are in one way or another responsible for up to 40% of energy-related carbon emissions. And so as the UK government’s self-imposed 2050 ‘net zero’ deadline moves inexorably closer, industry leaders in the built environment are anxiously looking for new ways in which to reduce construction’s carbon footprint.
One idea that has caught a lot of attention recently is that of ‘retrofitting’ – making the buildings we already have more energy efficient and less polluting.
The dictionary defines retrofitting as the act of “installing, fitting or adapting a device or system for use with something older” but its usage today occurs almost exclusively in the context of the built environment: improving cold, leaky homes with the generous application of thermal insulation and renewable-energy heating.
There’s a good reason for this. While new homes must meet the ever more stringent energy efficiency standards of Part L of the Building Regulations, the majority of British homes fall well short of what would be acceptable in a new-build. They need retrofitting.
“The UK has the oldest and leakiest housing stock in Europe,” says Lynne Sullivan, an architect. “The current energy crisis has shown that most of our existing homes are very expensive to heat because they are poorly insulated. There is now an urgent need to reduce energy consumption and the most effective way to do this is to make our existing homes more energy efficient by ensuring they are retrofitted to a standard suitable for low carbon heating systems.”
Sullivan is chair of the National Retrofit Hub, a new organisation set up to help propel retrofit rollout in the UK’s existing homes. The initiative, officially launched in March at the Building Centre in London, is a response from industry to the growing need to make our building stock greener and more energy efficient.
The National Retrofit Hub is backed by 40 organisations including Innovate UK (the government’s innovation agency), TrustMark, the Sustainable Development Foundation, UK Green Building Council and the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).
“The creation of the National Retrofit Hub is a means to bring clarity to those who work in the retrofit sector by signposting and sharing best practice to speed up the roll out of greener homes,” says Sullivan. “Creating the Hub will cement links with the finance community and the skills providers to enable locally based delivery programmes to be scaled up and deliver significant economic and social benefits.”
Innovate UK’s senior innovation lead, Mat Colmer says: “The National Retrofit Hub is very much aligned to the aims of Innovate UK’s Net Zero Heat programme: to stimulate market demand, unlock finance and deliver whole systems retrofit. It is really important to work with the structures that are established in our nations and regions to amplify, not replicate, the work that’s already being done.”
Creation of the National Retrofit Hub is being hailed as a vital moment in the UK’s ‘journey’ to net zero. But retrofitting insulation and other energy-saving methods and materials to the UK’s entire existing housing stock is a daunting challenge and the aim of the Hub is to provide a focal point for the industry to share knowledge and develop practical solutions.
“Now is the time for the industry to step up and define the technical solutions, give government the collateral it needs, help consumers understand their options and identify a combined public and private sector roadmap to fund and regulate our way to healthier, warmer, greener homes,” says Richard Robinson, chief executive of Atkins UK and deputy chair of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC). “I look forward to the NRH making this a reality.”
But one of the biggest obstacles to realising this is the construction sector’s chronic skills shortage. While the great and good were launching their Retrofit Hub, another group of concerned professionals was rolling out a report showing that we lack the skills needed to retrofit our historic buildings.
The National Trust, housing association Peabody, Historic England, the Crown Estate and Grosvenor Group are calling for industry and government collaboration to build a workforce capable of meeting the UK’s climate goals and safeguarding the UK’s historic buildings.
Their report, Heritage and Carbon – addressing the skills gap, claims that improving the energy efficiency of historic properties could reduce carbon emissions from the UK’s buildings by an estimated five per cent each year and generate £35bn of output in the economy, while creating new construction jobs and making homes warmer and cheaper to run.
The trouble is that, at the moment, the UK has only half the skilled workers it needs to do this.
A substantial proportion of buildings across the country fall into the category of ‘historic’. More than six million UK homes (around one in five) and a third of all commercial buildings (around 600,000 in total) were built before 1919.
Retrofitting requires skilled workers, regardless of the age and construction of a building. But adapting historic buildings requires even more specialist skills and training.
Plumbers will need to be able to work with heat pumps and hydrogen boilers, and many existing workers will need to be taught additional specialist skills to ensure heritage characteristics are protected and the work undertaken is appropriate to the type of construction.
The Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and an ageing construction workforce have contributed to a skills shortage in the industry in recent years. The new report estimates that around 100,000 people currently work on historic buildings but up to 105,000 new workers – including 14,500 more electricians and 14,300 more plumbers – will be needed each year until 2050 to focus solely on upgrading buildings built before 1919.
The report warns that without addressing the need for these extra skills and jobs, the UK might face a backlog of retrofit projects in the 2030s and risks losing some of its cultural heritage if these building become uninhabitable. The additional skills needed, combined with a general shortage of skills in the construction industry, creates a ‘perfect storm’ of a challenge, says the report.
The Heritage and Carbon report encourages the government to make the apprenticeship levy more flexible, allowing unspent funds to be channelled into training more people in the heritage retrofit field. Around £3.3bn of unused apprenticeship levy was returned to the Treasury between May 2019 and July 2022, says Burrows.
Grosvenor has pledged to transfer up to £50,000 of its levy each year to smaller businesses looking to bring new skills to their workforce. Levy money could also be used to fund six- to eight-week bootcamps for people interested in joining the sector, or to help existing workers acquire the specialist skills needed.
Peabody’s chairman, Lord Kerslake, says: “The benefits of prioritising our historic buildings are economic as well as environmental and social. They are an important source of prosperity and growth, with the heritage sector directly contributing £14.7bn to the economy in 2019.
“Making these buildings energy efficient will stimulate spending in the construction industry, support around 290,000 jobs in supply chains and boost heritage-related tourism and hospitality.
“And where needed, making older homes more energy efficient will transform the lives of the people who live and work in them, reducing household energy bills and improving health and wellbeing.”
Both the launch of the National Retrofit Hub and the publication of the Heritage and Carbon report come hard on the heels of a report by former energy minister Chris Skidmore entitled Mission Zero: Independent Review of Net Zero, published in January.
Researched and written in just three months, Skidmore’s review, which was commissioned by the government, called for urgent action and a ‘step change’ in the government’s net zero policy.
“We must move quickly,” Skidmore wrote. “We have heard from businesses that economic opportunities are being missed today because of weaknesses in the UK’s investment environment – whether that be skills shortages or inconsistent policy commitment.”
His report met with an enthusiastic response from the industry. FMB chief executive Brian Berry said: “The FMB welcomes the recommendations made in this report … as they show that with the right policy levers being pulled, the building industry can deliver a long term national retrofit strategy, which the FMB has long been championing.
“It’s also positive that the creation of ‘retrofit hubs’ is a key recommendation for moving the industry forward. The FMB and partners have been working on setting up a cross industry retrofit hub to help co-ordinate and upscale retrofit delivery.
“The report rightly notes that a net zero skills plan will be needed by the government. There is a serious skills shortage in the building industry with at least a third of FMB members finding it difficult to hire bricklayers and carpenters. We need to see a clear roadmap for skills and a market for retrofit so that local builders can make the transition to training up in new green skills.”
Tor Burrows, Grosvenor’s executive director of sustainability and innovation, says: “As Chris Skidmore’s net zero review identified, we need to grasp the historic opportunity that tackling climate change offers us.
The UK needs a long-term national retrofit strategy, led by the government, positively bringing together training, funding, and standards to sensitively decarbonise our historic buildings.
“Only then can we truly seize this opportunity to tackle a significant source of greenhouse emissions while protecting our much-loved built heritage.
“The construction industry, businesses and training providers need support to scale up. That’s why we’re asking the government to work with us on creating a national retrofit strategy that sets out a clear path for upskilling the current workforce while bringing in a whole new generation.
“Much of this will need to take place at a local level, with employers, local authorities and civic society helping to develop area-based retrofit programmes and training initiatives.”
Peabody puts its money (and yours) where its mouth is…
Social landlord Peabody is planning to invest £50m to make thousands of its homes more energy efficient after securing £25m from the second wave of the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
The grant, which Peabody is matching, will allow the organisation to retrofit 6,539 homes with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D or less, bringing them up to an average standard of EPC C and paving the way for further upgrades in future.
Improvements will include better insulation in walls and roofs, triple glazing where required and the use of ‘intelligent’ heating controllers and ventilation systems that should save residents money on energy bills. Solar panels will also be used for some homes.
Richard Ellis, director of sustainability at Peabody, said: “This £25m funding … will make a considerable difference to the work we can do to retrofit homes to make them fit for the future and warmer and cheaper to run for residents especially in this cost-of-living crisis.
“We know that improving the energy efficiency of older properties could reduce carbon emissions from the UK’s buildings by an estimated five per cent each year and this money will contribute to this, seeing us improve a huge 6,500 homes up to EPC C rating.
“To ensure value for money and improve as many homes as possible, we will implement ‘fabric first’ upgrade measures to thousands of social rent homes in London and the home counties, across a variety of housing types, from Victorian cottages to 1960s system builds.
“With almost three-quarters of our homes already EPC C or above, this money means we can begin to tackle the rest of our homes that have an EPC of D or below.”
Peabody and Islington Council successfully bid for £785,000 in the first wave of the government funding last year. That money, plus a further £1,500,000 from Peabody, was used to improve the energy efficiency of 66 social homes in Tufnell Park.
Peabody aims for all of its homes to be net zero carbon by 2050, in line with the government’s net zero strategy.
The funding was secured on behalf of Peabody through a partnership with carbon saving specialist Happy Energy Solutions, which Peabody had appointed in 2021 to help secure external funding for energy efficiency works.
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