Insight: Retrofit's role in driving economic growth

Reed Environment Director, Tom Hoines, looks at how retrofit has a powerful role to play in contributing to the Government’s economic growth priority:

At this week’s International Investment Summit, the Prime Minister pitched growth as his Government’s central priority. As the newly published Industrial Strategy makes clear, the ‘UK is committed to sustainable growth – growth that is aligned with our Net Zero and environmental objectives’. Sustainable growth begins at home. Our homes use 35% of all the energy in the UK and emit 20% of CO2 emissions. Four-fifths of housing stock in 2050 will be homes that are in use today. This means that it will not be possible for the UK to reach Net Zero carbon emissions without a major programme of retrofitting homes to increase energy efficiency and decarbonising our heating systems.

Moving further and faster with retrofitting the UK’s homes is not just a core Net Zero priority but contributes to economic growth. Retrofit has the potential to create local jobs for local people more than any other green sector, especially in the places that need growth most. The IPPR found that those communities with the highest need for installers tended to be current or former industrial centres and coastal communities outside of London and the South East. Each green job in retrofit could result in between 1.7 and 5.3 additional supply chain jobs, according to PwC. There is evidence that progress on retrofit has a more powerful multiplier effect than other Net Zero interventions.

It is for all these reasons that Reed Environment and Retrofit Coordination are delighted to have entered into a partnership to deliver a new initiative across Suffolk, on behalf of the Suffolk Climate Emergency Plan and Suffolk County Council. Over the next 18 months, we will be offering every homeowner in Suffolk with an EPC rating of below C a free Retrofit Assessment on their properties.

Our local, UK Government quality-endorsed energy efficiency professionals will be out visiting all types of privately owned Suffolk properties – from terraced houses in towns, to period properties in the countryside. We will be speaking to homeowners to learn how they and their families live and consume energy in their homes. We will use our expertise to understand exactly how much ‘mileage’ each property is getting out of the energy it consumes.

Bringing this information together we will create an easy-to-follow step-by-step plan of recommendations for homeowners that will reduce their energy consumption, make their homes more comfortable to live in, and highlight exactly how much money they could save on their bills every year. Every plan and recommendation will be uniquely tailored to the homes and lifestyles of residents. We will also leverage our knowledge, experience and network of local installers to support homeowners to conduct improvement measures, including by accessing a variety of locally available funding opportunities for homeowners, which they are entitled to use to upgrade their homes.

This is an innovative scheme that will make energy efficiency assessments and improvements accessible to private homeowners. It is through schemes such as this that we will accelerate progress with retrofit and leverage its potential to play an important role in the UK’s economic growth mission.