On 20th January, The Retrofit Academy CIC had the pleasure of co-hosting the Quality in Retrofit Summit with The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
A sell-out event held at RICS’ stunning Surveyor’s House in London, the event brought together built environment professionals from the surveying and retrofit sectors to discuss how retrofit projects can deliver high-quality outcomes for everyone – from funder to resident.
As the UK accelerates its transition to Net Zero and seeks to make homes healthier, warmer and cheaper to run, the scale and urgency of domestic retrofit has never been greater.
The recent publication of the Warm Homes Plan by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) demonstrates the UK government’s commitment, promising £15 billion over 5 years to upgrade 5 million homes. But with the findings from the National Audit Office that 92% of installations carried out under ECO4 and GBIS have “major issues requiring immediate remediation,” and that a further 6% “present immediate health and safety risks,” there is concern that quality is not embedded across the complex system that surrounds energy efficiency and retrofit.
To achieve our national climate targets and improve the lives of those living in cold, inefficient homes, now is the time to strengthen professional competence, accountability and oversight at every stage of the retrofit process.
The President of RICS, Nicholas Maclean OBE RD FRICS, opened with a reminder that retrofit is a global issue and that energy-efficient housing is critical to the environment. The system of home upgrades must deliver quality. It must be delivered by competent professionals. It must deliver outcomes that are measurable and avoid doing harm to homes and residents.
Reflecting on the origins of the current retrofit eco-system (The Hansford Review, Each Home Counts, PAS 2035 and the creation of Trustmark), David Pierpoint, CEO and Founder of The Retrofit Academy, reinforced the need to make retrofit something we can trust.
Quality in retrofit – establishing a baseline
The first panel debate considered the realities of retrofit right now. Matthew Hodges, Associate Director at AtkinsRealis, reflected on the findings of the National Audit Office report and the damage not only done to people’s homes, but to the reputation of the retrofit sector.
Ben Nixon, Specialist Consultant at Bailey Garner, presented PAS 2035 as an excellent framework that embeds quality from the outset, but that is evidently not being followed by many in the sector.
Professor Richard Fitton, chair of the BS 40104 Standard for Retrofit Assessment, argued for a simplified and more accessible set of standards and guidelines and called for all relevant Standards to be made freely available.
How can Professional Bodies and Educational Institutions work together to raise standards in the retrofit sector?
The second panel session addressed the professional ecosystem in retrofit, and what it needs to look like for the delivery of retrofit you can trust.
Kate Charrington FRICS, Director of Projekt 3, argued there is a large gap between residential surveyors and retrofit practitioners and that 3-day and 5-day courses to qualify as a Domestic Energy Assessor and Retrofit Assessor are wholly insufficient. The new Residential Retrofit Surveying (AssocRICS) pilot pathway developed by RICS, with input from The Retrofit Academy membership, is something she considers a step in the right direction.
Professor John Edwards FCIOB FRICS IHBC, Director of Edwards Hart Consultants, echoed Kate’s comments. Reflecting on recent years, his view is that people and businesses need to be enticed into the retrofit sector, the industry itself needs to offer more stability, and that Chartered Surveyors would make perfect Retrofit Assessors.
Ben Nixon agreed that such an important role cannot be prepared for with a 5-day training course and that the RICS pilot pathway is “absolutely the right direction”.
Asked how we bring trust to this industry, Professor Richard Fitton stressed that “we must learn from our mistakes”.
In the Q&A that followed, the inadequacies of short Retrofit Assessor courses were again raised as an issue, alongside the need for Retrofit Coordinators to visit every site, further development of the quality assurance system and the need for technical inspection.
Defining and delivering quality retrofit in practice
The final panel discussion brought together voices from across the value chain to examine what needs to change so that quality is embedded at every stage of the retrofit process. Here’s a summary of their recommendations:
- Dr Sarah Price, Technical Author of PAS2035:2023:
- Better quality control
- More testing and measurement
- Refinement of PAS 2035
- Professionals who act in the interests of residents, independently of vested interests
- Alan Gardner, Head of Historic Building Climate Change Adaptation, Historic England, referencing the issues with ECO4, stated “we’ve all seen the freight train coming,” and offered the following recommendations:
- The development of a skilled and knowledgeable workforce able to assess buildings competently
- Controls to ensure quality is built into the system
- Robust monitoring to ensure that when things go wrong, it is picked up
- Richard Ellis, Director of Sustainability at The Peabody Trust, stressed that “data is king” and prioritised the need to:
- Be clear on the intended outcomes of your project
- Understand your data
- Make sure there are checks on competence, qualifications and outputs
- Derek Horrocks, Chairperson at Sustainable Buildings Services (UK) Ltd:
- Acknowledge that a lot of fantastic work has been delivered to date
- Use examples of quality retrofit as a platform to build on
- Ensure combined authorities, local authorities and housing associations know about their housing stock and their local supply chain
- Match the right people with the right jobs
- Andy Sutton, Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Sero:
- Make sure the intended outcomes of a project are well defined, agreed and measurable
- Move towards performance contracting to incentivise the delivery of positive outcomes
- Make sure that outcomes are monitored
How do the Summit findings align with the recently published Warm Homes Plan?
It is reassuring to see that the recently published Warm Homes Plan addresses many of the themes raised in the Quality in Retrofit Summit.
A 5-year commitment to funding means more security and certainty for the industry and an ability to invest more in skills and training. A review of the complex system of standards, oversight and protections for energy efficiency and microgeneration installations should lead to a simpler and more streamlined framework for consumers and installers that better protects consumers.
Specifically in relation to training, the Warm Homes Plan commits to a continuation of the Warm Homes Skills Programme and further investment for the Heat Training Grant. While the majority of this funding will go towards installer training, there are commitments to subsidise training for retrofit assessors and coordinators as well.
What is The Retrofit Academy doing?
The Retrofit Academy is committed to the provision of high-quality training to develop the skills needed to support the delivery of the Warm Homes Plan.
- Our Retrofit Assessor course is a Level 4 Ofqual qualification written, delivered and assessed by industry experts. It is fully compliant with PAS 2035:2023 and was developed by the chair of BS 40104. It has been reviewed and approved by RICS and was considered to ”be of great value to RICS members”.
- We are proud to be working with RICS on pathways to develop further professional competence amongst retrofit assessors, retrofit coordinators and retrofit designers.
- Our commitment to lifelong learning and practical support is demonstrated through the comprehensive CPD, events and technical support we offer to our graduates and members.
If you’d like to find out more about the work of The Retrofit Academy, or if you are a RICS member interested in training to be a Retrofit Assessor, please get in touch: