Leading the charge in Retrofit Excellence: 10 Steps to Mastering Retrofit for a Net Zero World

Beyond mainstream housing, how are you dealing with the conversion and repurposing of the sort of complex, often neglected historical buildings you’re involved with at Capital & Centric. Buildings that may have stood vacant for donkeys such as Crusader Mill or Littlewoods. How do you go about recovering and futureproofing them back into commercial/mixed-use standards?

Mark:               Lots of declining town centres with void properties that could be repurposed. There needs to be an acceptance that they can’t be the same standards as other buildings or new builds. Creating a great space to be and one that’s environmentally friendly can be difficult to do.

Ellie:                Good to hear embodied and operational carbon both within the conversation. Ellie has authored research and written articles on how we can scale up retrofit through better engagement, infrastructure, and governance. Can you give us a snapshot of the key issues and recommendations?

Ellie:                Today we have spoken about individual properties and groups of properties. Ellie has been thinking about achieving retrofit at scale. Technology is not the issue as we have the systems to do the work or at least research can be done to develop the technologies that we do have.

There are so many actors involved. Consultants, contractors, builders merchants, product manufacturers, homeowners, etc… All of those actors need to have the capability, opportunity, and motivation to act in a certain way to get to the point of retrofitting properties at the scale required. Need to approach it like any other large infrastructure project.

The occupier is key in this process. How can we put them front and centre to get the best results from the construction process and monitoring post-completion? Are there any lessons learned in the private sector of benefit to the public sector housing challenge?

Mark:               Great success with engaging residents throughout the entire process. Take them on a journey. Residents need a good reason to allow for the disruption that retrofit works cause.

Brian:              Engagement often doesn’t happen until funding is secured and everything becomes a rush. It may be better to engage with customers earlier.

Retrofit is an extremely complex, technical subject. So inevitably, the language of Retrofit has become extremely techy, and full of jargon. Do we need stronger National guidelines/governance to help join everything up?

Ross:                There are lessons learned from the Building Safety Act. Dame Judith Hackitt has basically, said stop waiting to be told, you’re all professionals, do it right then you tell us why you’ve done it that way. We should just be doing things because we have the knowledge and it’s the right thing to do.

Stewart:           But there are obstacles in the way of a more streamlined process.

Paul:                Retrofit is complex and technical but it’s not rocket science. It’s simple principles. Perhaps need a national guide to give a clear and consistent message and to keep a bigger picture in our minds.

Paul:                PAS2035 has its own set of jargon, but we can’t let it become diluted into a ‘box-ticking’ exercise. Need to maintain a high level of professional standards (consultants, designers, contractors, managers etc…). Clients appear to think that PAS2035 is the best practice. Keep the consultants front and centre.

Audience Q&A Session

Thermographic imaging experience?

Elliot:               Useful tool but must be very careful how to interpret the image and rely on the data.

Lots of admin associated with PAS2035?

Elliot:               A bit of pain now, saves a lot of pain later.

More sophisticated conversation than other events – well done. What about the private sector?

Mark:               It is a big elephant in the room. The government needs to engage with the private sector nationally to address this, though that does cost lots of money.

So what’s the answer?

Stewart:           A nationally mandated definition of retrofit would help.

Elliot:               There’s a lot already there in terms of guidance, funding, supply chain, and professional knowledge, and now also with the PAS2035 process. Use trigger points of a medium-term plan from now until 2050 and don’t try to do everything at once.

Ross:                Designers need to present it in a palatable way to clients and homeowners. Not just data.

Is there a way to bring retrofit works together with new build and re-gen schemes?

Mark:               More debates and discussions within the sector and less working in isolation. More working together more consistently.

Ellie:                We shouldn’t all be spending effort trying to answer the same question. We should divide the questions up and collaborate better.

On a retrofit scheme that Poole Dick (PN) was involved with, it was part of a wider master plan. The same area ended up with new sports facilities and all sorts. It captured people’s imaginations and they bought into the wider vision.

Paul:                It transformed the area and the properties into somewhere that people were proud to live.

If you had a magic wand, what are the key thing/s you’d do/change to make Retrofit a more joined up/effective process?

Ellie:                Take a more holistic approach and think about retrofit in the context of everything else needing to be addressed.

Mark:               Take this whole topic out of the political sphere. Something that will stretch across consecutive governments and build momentum and consistency.

Elliot:               Change to the press. If you get something wrong in the area of retrofit then you can get bad press that puts people off the idea of retrofit. Perhaps more case studies and education.

Brian:              Same as Mark. Needs collaboration, consistency, early involvement, and a lifespan.

Paul:                An effective way to educate everybody so that all of the different people involved understand the why. And a basic understanding of how to live in a house comfortably.

Ross:                We are trying to improve homes and lives. More accessible government funding. Can businesses be leading the way on certain elements of delivering the retrofit targets.