PAS 2035 and Asset Management – Pulling it all Together

PAS 2035 brought greater clarity and consistency to net zero retrofit programmes. With millions of homes affected, it’s essential to have standards for how retrofit actions are designed and delivered.

Complying with the PAS 2035 standards will be essential for work to be certified under the PAS 2030:2019 TrustMark scheme. Specifying the qualifications needed by people responsible for key stages of the programme will also offer valuable reassurance to social landlords that need to upgrade their stock.

Specified roles include: Retrofit Advisor, Retrofit Assessor, Retrofit Coordinator, Retrofit Designer and Retrofit Evaluator. Validating the qualifications of people performing these roles becomes another important compliance task.

The Whole Home Approach

While PAS 2035 helps to clarify standards and expectations, it also brings complications for social landlords with potentially thousands of homes to upgrade. The standard requires providers to take a whole home approach to retrofit. This effectively rules out using a piecemeal approach. It also means that programmes designed to meet the interim target of EPC band C by 2030 must consider the ultimate net zero objective.

A whole home approach to retrofit doesn’t mean that everything has to be done in one go; It means that individual retrofit measures have to be designed and installed in a way that takes future, potentially more intrusive, actions into account.

Unintended Consequences

The other driver behind PAS 2035 is to avoid unintended consequences by considering the whole home ecosystem. Some obvious examples would be cavity wall insulation that leads to problems with damp, inadequate ventilation after a home is made more airtight, or interstitial condensation between walls and internal insulation.

Retrofits have to be delivered alongside all of the other asset management challenges that social landlords face. And this has to be done in a way that avoids duplication and makes the best possible use of resources.

Our aim at Osborne is to pull all of these strands together, so there’s a streamlined Total Asset Management approach to coordinate workstreams, resources and budgets.

To find out more about how Osborne Property Services are helping social landlords to prepare for PAS 2035, contact Jo Fletcher ([email protected]).