Tony Beer, Managing Director of RetrofitWorks, explains why the required retrofit upgrades to the UK’s housing stock represents the biggest building challenge our sector has ever faced — and also one of the biggest opportunities ever to merchants.
Regardless of the new Government’s strategy to combat the rising costs of living, a very significant number of families will be pushed into poverty over the coming months. This is not surprising when you consider the cost of hot water for a cup of tea has gone up from 1p to 3.5p in under 2 years, according to recent stats.
How much longer can we wait before we seriously start to implement retrofit measures across the entire building material supply chain? Ensuring homes’ improved thermal efficiency is the only way we will be in with a chance of hitting the UK’s commitment to Net Zero by 2050. Not long, according to the Climate Change Committee’s 2022 Progress Report, which makes for a sobering read.
Commenting on the findings, Lord Deben said: “The UK is a champion in setting climate goals, now we must be world-beaters in delivering them. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, the country is crying out to end its dependence on volatile fossil fuels. I welcome Government’s restated commitment to Net Zero, but holes must be plugged in strategy urgently. The window to deliver real progress is short. We are eagle-eyed for the promised action.”
Why does retrofit matter?
The retrofitting of the national housing stock is the most critical climate problem to solve and without ‘joined up thinking’ from Government and our supply chain, we will not beat climate change. Put simply, getting our 28 million homes retrofitted and renovated is the biggest engineering challenge the UK has ever faced.
Our homes use 35% of all the energy on the grid and emit 20% of the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change. More than 80% of existing homes will still be standing and occupied in 2050; building 250,000 new homes per year only adds 1% per year to the stock and reduces domestic emissions by 0.3%, so simply building new zero carbon homes will not get us close to the target.
As a collective, we need policymakers, merchants, trades specialists and home improvement contractors to grasp the fact that it’s holistic changes that are vital for sustainable and impactful change to happen. Retrofitting or building new homes with energy efficient technologies and materials in isolation does not work. What’s the point of putting heat pumps into poorly insulated homes?
Material collaboration
As a collective, we need policymakers, merchants, trades specialists and home improvement contractors to grasp the fact that it’s holistic changes that are vital for sustainable and impactful change to happen. Retrofitting or building new homes with energy efficient technologies and materials in isolation does not work. What’s the point of putting heat pumps into poorly insulated homes?
It’s a vicious circle of creating energy, supplying it, and then simply squandering it. This is where, I believe, working closely from their unique position in the supply chain, builders’ merchants and other materials’ distributors can help make really progress.
Customers including new build contractors, general RMI builders and retrofit specialists rely on merchants not only for wide stock ranges, value for money and choice, but also for advice and expertise, often leveraging off their supply manufacturer partners’ resources and training. What we want to do, is to help support this part of the sector to get our message through about how to do retrofits properly and using what materials when.
Merchants’ opportunity in retrofit
At RetrofitWorks, we are determined to effect change and are working tirelessly to try to get the right messages in front of the right people through action. The opportunity to work with merchants is huge. Just two recent contracts — which we believe are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to opportunity for merchants across the country — include the £40m planned investment to improve the energy efficiency of Greater London homes, as part of the Mayor of London’s Warmer Homes programme.
The Warmer Homes scheme offers over £36m to owner-occupied and privately rented homes to support the installation of a variety of measures such as External Wall Insulation, loft and underfloor insulation, as well as Air Source Heat Pumps and Solar PV. We have also just launched a new one-stop- shop retrofit service, Your Home Better, to cover Greater Manchester which is supported by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Mayor’s Office and delivered by a consortium of partners led by RetrofitWorks.
What we’ve been describing as the ‘Retrofit Movement’ is really starting to gather traction as these latest initiatives show. Retrofit offers a fantastic opportunity for merchants, materials’ manufacturers, contractors, installers, builders, retrofit coordinators and retrofit assessors to join us to help make the service a success.
Through the schemes we’re offering across the UK, with more and more coming on board every month, your business will be guaranteed great potential for reliable, long-term business opportunities, in parallel helping take on the battle to mitigate climate change. We urge you to join us now so we can collectively drive forward in our battle against climate change and enjoy the huge commercial benefits that this will bring with it.
RetrofitWorks is a leading, not-for-profit co-operative which was established to “improve homes in an environmentally friendly, Trustmark-accredited way”.
A version of this article appeared in the November edition of Professional Builders Merchant magazine. Click here to read the digital issue, via the PBM website.
