Step towards retrofit target
Ian Williams is helping to spark the debate
about hitting the Government’s Green Deal. As part of the Housing
Forum’s Working Group ‘Routes to Community Level Retrofit’, we have
been involved in writing a paper looking at the step changes needed
to prepare for large scale retrofit throughout communities. Whereas
previous Housing Forum reports have examined the costs and benefits
of sustainable retrofits to individual house types, Routes to
Community Scale Retrofit offers guidance on how to achieve complex
retrofits within the sustainability agenda.
Key findings of the report include:
- Retrofit is influenced as much by the motivations of residents
and professional organisations as by the technologies involved and
money saved
- Information available via smart meters, tariff flexibility and
easy measurement of savings, is a critical driver of future
behaviour
- Housing providers have already developed initiatives to improve
stock and these are good models for implementation and funding
- All retrofit actions should take into account uncertainty of
future energy and carbon prices.
Ian Williams’ managing director Andy Havard
said: “Achieving community level retrofit is going to need a
different approach than earlier mass programmes like decent homes
because it is as much about behavioural change as the technology.
The programme is going to require different approaches to asset
management and this research will put us on a strong footing to
start making steps towards retrofit targets.”