The Scale of Housing Retrofit Means the Process Must be Industrialised

How big is the housing retrofit challenge? A couple of statistics should help get across the scale of the actions needed:

• Housing accounts for 23% of the UK’s carbon emissions.
• 29 million homes need to have some degree of retrofit.

To put that into context, an average of one million retrofits would be needed each year for the entire existing UK housing stock to be brought up to scratch.

One critical challenge on the road to net zero is finance. A recent report published by Bankers for Net Zero identifies how sustainability-backed loans would help to ease the cash flow issues – essentially borrowing today against future energy cost savings.

Capacity Building is Urgent

If the finances can be resolved through loans and government grants, there’s still a massive capacity issue to address. It’s pretty clear that one million retrofits per year can’t be delivered using piecemeal approaches.

The process has to be industrialised to have any chance of being completed in time. The Bankers for Net Zero study also estimates that the UK retrofit supply chain will need to grow by ten times to meet the required output levels.

Although it sounds daunting, the objective is achievable. Retrofit methods and technologies are well-understood – including Osborne’s simple four-step retrofit process. The construction sector is also becoming accustomed to working with a manufacturing mindset. For example, thermal cladding can be produced in large format panels, made to measure and delivered on a just-in-time basis.

Lean Efficiencies

Construction is also learning how to apply Lean methods. These will make the entire retrofit programme progressively more efficient and cost-effective.

Several large social housing providers are helping to set the agenda through collaborative procurement. This approach will help with the development of large-scale partnerships of lead contractors, green technology specialists and installers who will need to collaborate to organise delivery into seamless workstreams.

The way of working needed is different from traditional construction projects. It’s an industrial-scale challenge that needs an industrial-style approach to delivery.

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