Retrofit news

Last night (18 October) the government announced the key elements that will feature in its long-awaited Heat and Buildings Strategy.  The key elements of the strategy are:  Plans to drive down the cost of low carbon heating technologies, such as

Local authorities in London have agreed a plan to achieve net zero by retrofitting 3.8 million homes in the capital. The cost of achieving this will be £98 billion and is though to support 200,000

A study by Halifax bank has revealed that improving the energy efficiency of your home could increase its value by as much as £40k. It was found that environmentally focused buyers were willing to pay more for a home that had the highest Energy Performance

In August the government announced that social housing in England will benefit from becoming warmer, greener and cheaper to run. Local authorities will have the chance to bid for government funding to make improvements to the social houses.  The release

The Guardian featured the People Powered Retrofit programme by Carbon Coop, including an interview with Boris Afinogenov, who retrained as a retrofit installer with Carbon Coop after leaving his job in sales. The article also highlights their community shares

This week Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has said that he is in talks with the chancellor to bring back an ‘equivalent’ scheme to the Green Homes Grant – which was scrapped in March – to encourage homeowners to decarbonise their

The UK has an abundance of historic buildings, including listed buildings which have limitations on how they can be changed. These older buildings inevitably have energy loss issues – including issues like damp and mould which also cause health and

Triodos Bank interviewed North Camden Housing Cooperative about their work to decarbonise their housing stock, including Carlton Chapel House in Kentish Town which has been recently retrofitted to cut carbon

The BBC have reported on a home in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, which has been ‘future-proofed’ by its owners to minimise the home’s environmental impact and to reduce the threat of climate damage in the future from events such as

The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has said that an automatic switching system for energy tariffs will be trialled in 2024 – wherein homeowners will be automatically moved to a cheaper deal for energy. The scheme is

Energy performance certificates (EPCs) tell prospective tenants and buyers how energy efficient a property is on a scale of A to G, with A being most efficient and G, least. The Conversation has released an article based on a new piece of research, arguing

A new PwC report released ahead of UN World Environment Day found that from energy bill savings alone it can take, on average, at least 10 years to cover the upfront costs of making energy efficiency improvements to UK homes.  A survey of 1,000 adults found

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has reported that the national shortage of construction materials is getting worse. With the UK opening up after a series of lockdowns, construction activity is at the highest rate in the past seven years. But, this

Researchers at Nottingham University have released the results from their recent research into the best approaches to improving the energy efficiency of older homes. Professor Mark Gillott and his team constructed a replica 1930s semi-detached house on campus

The Green Homes Grant scheme for homeowners was scrapped in March of this year. At this time the Government allocated an additional £300 million of funding to the Local Authority Delivery side of the Green Homes Grant scheme, wherein households could access

The International Energy Agency (IEA) have advised that no new fossil fuel boilers should be sold from 2025 onwards if the world is to achieve net-zero emissions by the middle of this century. This is part of their newly released report Net Zero by 2050,

100 social housing properties in the north east of Scotland will be upgraded to improve energy efficiency, using a fabric first approach to retrofit. This will be at no cost to tenants or landlords, due to £2.2 million of funding from the government through

The Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report on Energy Efficiency of Existing Homes was published today. There is little response in the report itself, with the focus instead on the imminent Heat and Buildings Strategy, where

This week the Times covered the story of an eco retrofit of a rural home in St Catherine’s Valley near Bath – including insulation and external

A cross-party group of MPs making up the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has called for the Green Homes Grant to be replaced with a new and improved multi-year energy efficiency scheme in the upcoming Spending Review, in a letter to the Business