Sharon Bhorkar

Of the 28 million residential properties within the UK, 19 million are poorly insulated and hence energy inefficient.

They account for 40% of energy consumption and are one of the major contributors to the GHG missions with repercussions to climate change as well as social issues like fuel poverty. The UK has committed to reducing GHG emissions by 80% by 2050, meaning the energy efficiency of existing homes needs improving through retrofit.

Retrofitting measures can reduce energy consumption in homes and improve occupant comfort, make homes healthier, and reduce fuel bills.

Local authorities across the UK are undertaking thousands of retrofits each year, however, the measurement of the impact of these retrofit activities are haphazard, meaning retrofit assessments taking place are fragmented, complex to implement, expensive, inconsistent in their approach, and therefore do not give a comparable, standardised assessment of the retrofit work done. This means lessons learned and best practices are not being shared and there remains uncertainty around the benefits that are being delivered to communities.

This research aims to understand how to improve retrofit assessments. It identifies the barriers and drivers in the implementation of retrofit evaluations and explores the design of a standardised retrofit evaluation toolkit that could be implemented among landlords who are upgrading their housing stock. This paper describes the results of a case study that attempts to implement a standardised retrofit toolkit designed in collaboration with the UKGBC on a retrofit project undertaken by Leeds City Council as part of the BUILDUpon2 framework. The paper makes recommendations on how to enhance the assessment toolkit and explore how it can be implemented successfully within landlord organisations.