Ben Lambon-Ralph, Associate Partner and Retrofit Lead at BG delves into the UK’s Retrofitting puzzle when it comes to housing stock. Retrofitting at such a scale is a beast and if we are to meet the carbon emission targets we have a long way to go.
The UK is making a concerted effort to install energy improvement measures to its social housing stock, reducing the carbon footprint of homes while alleviating fuel poverty and safeguarding the health and wellbeing of occupants. However, there are still challenges the sector continues to face delivering these retrofit measures at scale, and they often arise due to a lack of strong project oversight.
Retrofitting homes to achieve net zero carbon emissions is a monumental task; while the technology to improve energy efficiency exists, the real challenge lies in scaling these solutions to retrofit millions of homes.
The social housing funding streams help illustrate the ambition: £61m was awarded to a select number of organisations in 2021, which has escalated through funding iterations to £1.3bn within the latest round. Appetite is strong too, with bidders requesting in excess of £2.17bn – an oversubscription that resulted in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero requesting additional funds from the treasury.
The Problem
Despite the funding commitment, there has been difficulty turning opportunity into reality. As Baily Garner’s Retrofit Lead for the South of England, I’ve worked on some of the largest SHDF schemes in the country, and it’s my view that the difficulty stems from the way retrofit projects have been conceptualised and delivered, which can often be flawed.
The core reason for this is that these large-scale schemes often lack what any large, complex project needs – robust foundations underpinned by strong project management principles.
There are standards that aim to facilitate the retrofit process, such as PAS 2035 – a household name in this arena and one my colleagues and I hold in high regard. This standard creates a robust framework for the management of retrofit risk, however, it is very much centred at the level of a singular dwelling.
As a result, properties are often assessed almost at random based upon factors such as access availability, and the delivery continues from there. This is not conducive of a strategic project; if we were delivering a large-scale, high-speed rail network, we would not plan to build 100m of track and install it before moving onto the next 100m.
The result of this small-scale approach is that problems arise, particularly when moving from the inspection, design and survey stage into the delivery stage. These problems are not only isolated to programme delays but can also create mounting costs and significant resident fatigue.
This may sound familiar to many, and it’s a mould that needs to be broken.
A RIBA Plan of Retrofit Work
The successful delivery of large scale construction projects has been contingent on strong project management principles throughout history, and we believe retrofit should be afforded the same treatment.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) developed a well-known and respected process for briefing, designing, constructing and operating building projects, which divides them into eight stages.
The principles of the RIBA Plan of Work have been adapted to include specific requirements for bespoke project types, like Passivhaus, engagement and Smart Buildings, but an overlay is yet to be produced to align it with the requirements of retrofit and relevant standards (such as PAS 2035).
This is something we feel strongly about, and so we produced our own interpretation with the inclusion of additional core activities needed for large-scale projects, in our recently published Toolkit – Unlocking Retrofit at Scale.
Within our toolkit, we have included the critical tasks needed in the very first stages of the project, such as creation of a retrofit strategy, archetyping studies, technical compliance documentation, resident engagement, consultation strategies and financial modelling. All of these contribute to a comprehensive, organisational approach underpinned by strong project management principles.
The benefit is an informed approach to the later stages of the project, ensuring the project aligns with the organisation’s strategy. This will also create great efficiencies during the delivery stage. Additionally, it means any external parties playing a role in delivery have a common understanding of the intended project outcomes.
The toolkit and RIBA overlay does not only focus on the early stages, but is included for the entire project duration; it covers key requirements at all RIBA Stages and serves as a robust blueprint for retrofit schemes to follow in pursuit of scale.
Playing to Strengths
The PAS 2035 standard describes the Retrofit Coordinator role as follows:
“Person qualified as a specialist retrofit project manager, taking overall responsibility for overseeing the assessment of dwellings, the identification, specification, inspection and evaluation of energy efficiency measures for installation at a given dwelling as a single project, and their subsequent monitoring and evaluation”
We believe the Retrofit Coordinator should be someone who has detailed understanding and experience of working with existing buildings, and that they should be active and present throughout project delivery. Retrofit is not a new concept and something the industry has been doing under a different guise of ‘good asset management’. Therefore, experience exists that needs to be leveraged.
Too often, the PAS 2035 wording is misconstrued and it is assumed the Retrofit Coordinator is also responsible for the overarching strategic management and running of retrofit projects. Or it is not assumed, and this role is overlooked and not fulfilled at all. It’s without an overarching approach that large-scale schemes can fall into the trap of becoming led by the standard and not by project management principles.
The responsibilities of the Retrofit Coordinator are already a monumental task, which is why large-scale projects often have more than one person fulfilling this role. For this reason, we advocate the separate role of Retrofit Project Manager.
This individual is responsible for delivering the overall scheme and completing the critical tasks referenced above that set a project up for success, as well as managing the contract with delivery partners.
With the above elements taken care of, the Retrofit Coordinator can focus solely on what it will take to improve each property.
Our Toolkit includes a full breakdown of responsibilities that apply to both the Retrofit Project Manager and the Retrofit Coordinator within each stage of our framework for delivery based on the RIBA Plan of Work.
It is important to note that the Toolkit is not trying to make a complex process even more complicated with the introduction of a new role, but instead to highlight the activities that must be undertaken to facilitate successful, large-scale rollout of retrofit, and why Retrofit Coordinators might not be best placed to carry them out.
A note of caution
As local authorities and housing associations across the country prepare to bid for Warm Homes: SHF Wave 3 funding, they have an important decision to make: Do they want their projects to be led by a retrofit standard that was never intended as a framework for delivery – or by the same project management principles responsible for successfully delivering construction projects for decades?
Net zero by 2050 is already an ambitious target, and neither organisations with social housing stock nor the country can afford too many hiccups as we move toward meeting milestones related to EPC rating and space heating demand.
As a country with some of the worst performing and least energy efficient homes in Europe, we need to get retrofit at scale right, and adapting our approach based on lessons learned is how we’ll get there.
After a few years spent in the sandbox learning on projects from the SHDF Demonstrator to Wave 2.1, I’m ready to be part of a more methodical approach to retrofit schemes that avoids the common pitfalls and creates efficiencies through sound project management.
The latest in our series of toolkits ‘Unlocking Retrofit at Scale’ covers every step of the journey when it comes to projects of this size. Read the full toolkit here. And contant Ben Lambon-Ralph here.