MARIANNE HEASLIP
COLUMN
Putting residents at the heart of retrofit We will never scale up retrofit unless we genuinely listen to building occupants and understand their needs, says architect Marianne Heaslip.
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he UK government’s lack of ambition around making homes more energy efficient is disappointing. Recent policies, including last autumn’s heat and buildings strategy and the new heat pump grant, are inadequate and disjointed. But given the imperative of the climate emergency, we can’t wait for high level policy to change. We need to get on with improving our homes now and building the infrastructure that will take retrofit to scale. I know from my work with Carbon Co-op on the People Powered Retrofit service — talking to clients and visiting their homes — that many people want to improve their home, but they’re stuck. This is not a problem of technology; the tech we need exists. For many it’s also not a problem of finance, because they have savings or access to finance.
or gaming EPC ratings. It needs to work logically with planned improvements and repairs. We also need to recognise that not everyone wants intimate knowledge of their heating system (though I’m eternally grateful to those who do, because we learn a lot from them). But generally, people just want things to work, to be easy to control and maintain. If we don’t address this as an industry, and make retrofit accessible and attractive, rather than something that is ‘done to’ people, it will never take off. This starts with the retrofit project brief, a welcome focus of PAS2035, and should flow into survey, design, construction and handover. Taking a people-centred approach also improves retrofit quality, through better understanding of the context. Even the most keen-eyed surveyor only visits a home for a
Even the most keen-eyed surveyor only visits a home for a few hours, while the resident lives there. Rather, it’s uncertainty about what to do, fear of getting something wrong, and doubt about who will do it. This uncertainty kills progress. Previous top-down retrofit programmes have taken a ‘one size fits all’ approach, but ended up not fitting anyone. If we’re serious about taking retrofit to scale we need to be equally serious about meeting the needs of those people using the buildings we retrofit. Focusing on people’s priorities makes it more likely that a project will happen and succeed. If a client’s main driver is to improve comfort or energy security, just swapping over their heat source, without addressing draughts and cold spots, won’t do this. This issue will worsen as energy prices soar. Works such as insulation, which mean people need less energy in the first place, must be prioritised. Scaling up and mainstreaming retrofit also needs to be about integrating it with ‘normal’ building work and maintenance. If someone is planning an extension, new kitchen, or loft renovation, the retrofit needs to accommodate this. Phasing of works can’t just be about maximising (notional) cost per tonne of carbon,
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few hours, while the resident lives there. Residents know which rooms are coldest or feel stuffy, where periodic damp and condensation appears, how they control their heating, and where they dry their laundry. Combining this knowledge with professional know-how is invaluable in creating better retrofit designs. If this is also combined with actual energy and other environmental data, so much the better. This people-centred approach doesn’t just apply to owner-occupied housing. Those living in rented homes also deserve not to be ‘done to’ when it comes to retrofit. The Northern Housing Consortium’s Tenants’ Climate Jury, run in 2021, demonstrated that again, the main barrier is not ‘demand’ or understanding something needs to be done. Instead, the concerns are ones anyone might have about a building project: how disruptive and messy it will be, how long it will take, and whether it will achieve its intended outcomes. These concerns can be mitigated by straightforward but often difficult to achieve things (given funding constraints), like good resourcing for engagement, user-friendly information
materials, sensible lead-in times for design and surveys, and practical construction programmes. Aneaka Kellay at Carbon Co-op has done good work in this area (see their ‘Retrofit for All’ toolkit). Last but not least, we need to also be people-centred in our approach to developing supply chains, the people who will actually do this work. Developing good jobs is not something the construction industry has always been good at. Unless contractors are engaged and willing, and can see a future in this work, it won’t happen. This might be about meaningful social value and procurement reform in public sector work. Or, as demonstrated in our work in Greater Manchester with the micro builders who already do lots of local home improvement work, it’s about better understanding their motivations, providing skills support, and contacts to well-informed clients. We can and should campaign for better and clearer central government policy, but we can also take this into our own hands, by improving the services we offer and making retrofit truly people powered. n
Marianne Heaslip is an architect and retrofit specialist at URBED (Urbanism, Environment, Design), an award-winning design and research consultancy based in Manchester.
