How To Save Money And Give Residents A Better Retrofit Experience

Zero carbon retrofit for large social housing providers is such a huge task in its own right that it might be tempting to look at it in isolation. This would make the planning and scheduling process less complex. But the reality is that these programmes won’t take place in isolation.

The regular work of property services will continue throughout the retrofit period. There will be voids, emergency repairs and scheduled upgrades. Inevitably some of these will cut across the zero carbon retrofit programme.

The resident experience and overall cost efficiency will benefit from integrating retrofit with routine property services work streams as far as possible.

From a resident’s point of view retrofit is just another aspect of repair and maintenance services. They will expect it all to be integrated so that they have as few disruptions as possible.

Although research in this area is limited, residents prefer a whole home approach to retrofit. ‘Just get it all over with in one visit’ seems to be the consensus. Why wouldn’t this preference extend to any other work needed on their home?

Efficiency

In addition to the routine issues of arranging access and ensuring somebody will be at home, there’s an overhead cost every time you send a team of operatives and equipment to a resident’s home.

Rationalising visits wherever possible, so that upgrades are performed during the retrofit works, could add up to significant cost saving over thousands of social homes. A void is obviously an ideal opportunity to get into a property and do whatever needs to be done before it is re-let.

Stock Condition

Everything starts with accurate and usable stock condition data. Knowing exactly when major upgrade work will be needed to kitchens, bathrooms and heating systems will allow more property services work to be rationalised.

This also presents the opportunity to give residents a package of tangible benefits alongside the promise of lower energy bills.

There are many reasons why it’s worth the extra effort to ensure that retrofit and repair and maintenance work streams are as integrated as possible.

For more ideas about how to approach zero carbon retrofit at scale visit our resource centre. Or contact Nick Davidge ([email protected]).