The delivery and communication challenges of retrofit

The need for more energy efficient homes to reduce carbon, reduce fuel bills and ensure the quality of our housing stock has long been established, both to reach carbon reduction targets and alleviate fuel poverty. Energy used in homes accounts for 27 per cent of the carbon produced in this country1 and so to achieve the 80 per cent savings required by the Climate Change Act 2008 by 2050, housing must be addressed. This immediately poses two challenges. The first, as often cited, is that it is not the homes themselves that consume energy, it is the people who live in them and therefore control the amount of energy used. Secondly, it is someone's home, not an unoccupied building or even a place of work, which brings further sensitivities when it comes to making any changes to that home. This article covers the experience of one of the largest providers of affordable housing in the country, Affinity Sutton, in delivering retrofit and interacting with residents before, during and after the process, the challenges faced and how the organisation has been working to overcome these.