Retrofit Review

Welcome to the new issue

Hello and welcome to the 22 June issue of Retrofit Review - curated by us, Low Carbon Homes. Another bumper issue for you with all the latest news, articles, reports, guides, events and jobs - all focused on what's happening (and in the pipeline) in the world of housing retrofit and low carbon projects. Plus...we are delighted to welcome our first newsletter sponsor 🥁 Purrmetrix 🥁 who have a fascinating update for us (see next article). So, lots going on as ever. Scroll through and click on links below articles to delve deeper. Read on, retrofitters...

News from this issue's sponsor

Putting data into the contractors toolbox

The army of contractors and trades responsible for delivering our retrofit future are now getting to grips with data, using a new generation of monitoring tools. Purrmetrix looks at how monitoring is used in retrofit, what a good monitoring tool looks like, and what it can do for contractors and installers...

News & Opinion

New retrofit report calls for ‘triple win’ action by UK Government and provides inspiration to local authorities

Investing in a nationwide retrofit is the ‘win-win-win’ of climate response – cutting emissions, reducing fuel poverty and boosting local employment, says climate solutions charity, Ashden, in its policy briefing: Creating warmer homes – inspiration and practical retrofit advice for local authorities and national government launched on 14 June...

PM planning to slash £1bn from existing energy efficiency schemes to fund new insulation drive

The Prime Minister is planning to divert more than £1bn from existing energy efficiency and clean heat programmes to create a new scheme focused on insulating the homes of poorer households, according to reports. Campaigners slam proposals to skim money from existing subsidies to create new insulation scheme, arguing that it amounts to 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'...

National Insulation Association holds first parliamentary event

Over 130 attendees from the energy efficiency industry joined the National Insulation Association’s (NIA) first parliamentary event on 6th June 2022. The event aimed to bring together people from across the insulation sector, celebrating the hard work the industry has done so far, and to look ahead at the priorities and opportunities...

Events

Get the right tools to ride the heat pump wave

The ground-breaking Heat Pumps for Installers Meet-Up to be held on Wednesday 6th July, 8.30am-11.30am (online) provides the opportunity to ask questions to those who are already experienced in heat pump installations and find out what’s involved with pivoting your business to get ahead of the crowd.

The event has been developed with support from Ground Source Heat Pump Association, Heat Pump Association, Heat Pump Federation, MCS, BEIS and Ofgem - and Media Partner >>> Renewable Energy Installer.

Government & Policy

Scotland's Heat in Buildings strategy - quality assurance: policy statement

Quality assurance is critical to our heat decarbonisation aims. This policy statement focuses on the standards, skills and certifications required for installers on Scottish Government schemes, proposed ways to tackle scams and mis-selling and how to improve public engagement...

BEIS unveils timeline for second wave of Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said bidding for the funding will open in late August/early September for an eight-week period. Local authorities, combined authorities and registered providers of social housing will all be able to apply for funding via the second wave of the SHDF, unlike the first wave when bids had to be submitted by local authorities...

Social Housing Retrofit Accelerator - free Government-backed support

The Social Housing Retrofit Accelerator (SHRA) is a fully-funded support service to help social housing providers across England successfully bid into the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), with £800m committed between 2022-2025...

Austria to ban gas boilers in new buildings as of 2023

Austria is revamping its renewable heating law in order to reduce the country’s immense dependence on Russia: pulling forward a sales phase-out of fossil gas boilers, and requiring broken oil and coal heaters to be replaced with green options...

Canada Greener Homes Loan

The Canada Greener Homes Loan helps Canadians make their homes more energy efficient and comfortable. It offers interest-free financing in addition to the Canada Greener Homes Grant to help you complete some of the more major retrofits recommended by your energy advisor. Up to $40,000 interest free for 10 years is available...

BEIS Public Attitudes Tracker: Spring 2022

Findings from the quarterly BEIS Public Attitudes Tracker (PAT) now out, including Heat and Energy in the Home...

Local/Regional Action

OVO and Cornwall Council team up for whole-house retrofit programme

Over 400 off-gas grid homes in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are to receive whole house retrofit upgrades designed to drastically improve their energy efficiency, as part of a new partnership between energy giant OVO and Cornwall Council...

LA Retrofit Forum announced

Are you a Local Authority that’s currently undertaking home retrofit projects or will be in the near future? UKGBC is hosting a Retrofit Forum, with the first session on 29th June, to offer a supportive environment where you can connect, collaborate, share challenges & learn from sector leaders. The forum will also help develop resources and content for audiences across the sector...

Calling all Builders - Harrogate College are now offering free house Retrofit courses

In partnership with Harrogate College, Zero Carbon Harrogate are now offering free house Retrofit courses for builders in the Harrogate area. The courses aim to provide builders with an awareness of retrofit building practices and help tackle the circa 67,000 homes in the district which require retrofitting, to make them more energy efficient and reduce their impact on CO2 levels by 2030...

Retrofit Revisited

Essex Retrofit - highlights from recent summit

“We’ve been working on a strategy for the last eighteen months called the Sector Development Strategy which is looking at the sectors of the future which have the greatest opportunity for growth within the county", Loretta Hoy, Green Sector Development Lead at Essex County Council told our Essex attendees last month... + Create your free Low Carbon Homes profile to access the fantastic resources from the Essex retrofit event (videos and slidedecks) and all our other retrofit event resources - on-demand. Free!

Reports, Research, Guides

Local governments must take responsibility for clean heat

Net zero energy goals for heating need to be owned and delivered by regional and local governments, according to a new report. In addition, the report, led by the University of Birmingham, emphasises the need to balance these on-the-ground local decisions with long-term policy decisions from Government...

Transforming Britain's Heating – A Pathway to Heat Pumps

The Heat Pump Association (HPA) has published a call for a strong partnership between Industry and Government to transform Britain’s domestic heating market towards heat pumps as sales of new fossil fuel boilers is phased out by the mid 2030s. Placing the role of the heating installer at the heart of the transition, the HPA also announced the launch of a new membership category for installers, as well as drawing attention to substantial investment in UK manufacturing and training, and ideas for Government to make enabling policy changes...

Heat pump message still failing to cut through

Almost two-thirds of the population do not feel they confidently understand what a heat pump is, how it works and how to go about getting one. This is according to new research commissioned by law firm Shakespeare Martineau, which also found that nearly two in five (37%) consumers said that if their boiler needed replacing in the next six months, they would replace it with a new gas boiler...

Community Energy State of the Sector report

The report shows that in 2021 community energy faced its most challenging year ever as the government ignored calls from the sector, and the Environmental Audit Committee, to support its growth to deliver vital local climate action and engagement and huge community benefit. Despite this, the sector has delivered new community owned renewable electricity generation, new jobs, millions in community benefit and savings to bill-payers, and is leading on the emergency response to the energy bill crisis...

Solid floor insulation (SFI): best practice

Guide for designers, surveyors and installers considering the suitability of solid floors to receive internal thermal upgrades...

Energy efficiency guide for landlords

Landlords can support their tenants by offering energy saving advice and installing energy efficiency home upgrades. Summer is the ideal time to carry out these home improvements, before colder weather hits and energy prices go up again...

Jobs

Director of Policy and Delivery, and Policy Manager | Solar Energy UK

Solar Energy UK is looking for their next Director of Policy and Delivery and Policy Manager to join the team. This is an exciting time to be part of the organisation as the industry experiences a period of change and sustained growth...

Industry Manager - Construction and Building Services | City & Guilds Group Careers

We are seeking an experienced, highly motivated, and dynamic person to join our industry team as an additional Industry Manager for Construction and Building Services Engineering (BSE) working alongside our current full time Industry Mangers for these sectors...

Next issue

Coming up

Next issue out 6 July when we welcome issue sponsor Enigma Electronic Water Descaler. BTW: our last issue achieved a 30% open rate (thanks, lovely readers!) - so if you are keen to reach this super-engaged and dedicated audience (in a low-cost and hassle-free way), hit this Sponsorship enquiry link right now!

Installers and maintenance teams - don't forget to register 🆓 for Heat Pumps for Installers - to access a great morning of focused and informative presentations, live chat and questions with those who are moving - or who have already moved their installer business into heat pumps. Really, please dont miss this gathering 🙏🏻

Thanks for reading. Have a good week and we'll be back with you around 6 July.