Neb Augustinov, Retrofit Lead at Ridge, on making Net Zero upgrades work for social housing

By 2030, the government has set a target for social housing properties to achieve an energy performance certificate (EPC) band C, and 1.2 million properties in England alone will require retrofitting measures to make them warmer, more comfortable and more efficient.

Social housing providers can now apply for grants under the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3, the successor to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. Funding is essential – but, we’ve seen on previous waves, it’s just one ingredient of a successful retrofit.

As Retrofit Lead at Ridge, here’s what I’ve learned about delivering energy-efficiency upgrades for social housing.

Start with a clear picture

One of the biggest challenges for social housing providers is to understand what condition their stock is currently in. That’s essential for the initial project planning, and for establishing intended outcomes and goals. Without this, they will find it difficult to come up with a viable decarbonisation strategy, and may discover later on that ineligible properties have been included in a bid.

One of the biggest challenges for social housing providers is to understand what condition their stock is currently in. That’s essential for the initial project planning, and for establishing intended outcomes and goals.

With thousands of properties to get to grips with, that can be a daunting task, but there are techniques that we can use to get a clear picture, and formulate a strategy that will hit their goals from the outset. The Property Consultancy team at Ridge already has considerable data from stock condition surveys and EPCs. With that detailed knowledge of existing housing archetypes, we can use desktop surveys to build a picture of the correct measures to decarbonise those properties, and the likely level of funding required.

Collaboration is key to compliant design

When you’re retrofitting a varied portfolio, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Even houses that were identical at the time of their construction may have diverged significantly through modifications over the years, and be used very differently by past and current residents.

When you’re retrofitting a varied portfolio, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Even houses that were identical at the time of their construction may have diverged significantly through modifications over the years.

So we do need to think about properties individually, rather than assuming the same measures will work everywhere, and we need to take their occupancy into account. Achieving a compliant design doesn’t only require designers with experience of retrofitting projects, it takes a multidisciplinary approach with structural engineers, building services specialists, surveyors and architects all working together.

See retrofits in context, not isolation

For the UK to meet its 2050 Net Zero target, retrofit projects carried out today are just the first step towards the goal of a completely decarbonised housing stock. When we’re planning a retrofit, we can also model further improvement measures and provide approximate costings, to feed into an overall asset management strategy for the next five, ten or 25 years. That way, a retrofit is not an end in itself, but a valuable information-gathering and planning exercise to set social landlords on the right path.

Don’t forget to communicate the benefits

Last, but definitely not least, tenants should always be at the heart of everything we do. For some audiences, “Net Zero” may have become a loaded term, but there are other ways that we can educate tenants and empower them to reap the benefits. We are developing templates for effective communications, to explain what retrofitting will involve, what it will mean for them in terms of time and disruption, and why it’s worth it to improve their home. As part of each project, we calculate the potential energy savings for each property, which might be as much as £600-700 a year. Including that personalised figure in letters or emails is a very powerful way to illustrate what tenants stand to gain by opting in.

As part of each project, we calculate the potential energy savings for each property, which might be as much as £600-700 a year.

Tenants will understandably have follow-up questions, and social landlords’ in-house teams may not be able to answer them fully – so we also make sure that our retrofit advisors are available to provide the answers, whether by taking part in tenant workshops or by being available to take calls from resident liaison officers.

Tenants are the most important stakeholders in a retrofit: keeping them engaged is key to getting projects off the ground, and it will determine how successfully retrofits achieve the desired goal of carbon savings. Decarbonising the UK’s social housing stock will be a major undertaking, with millions of properties requiring significant improvements. But we should never forget that every single one of them is somebody’s home.

Neb Augustinov is Retrofit Lead at Ridge. He has extensive experience in the delivery of each key element of retrofit projects from inception to completion and has assisted many clients with their Asset Management and Net Zero strategies. Recently, Neb led Birmingham City Council’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) bid, managing the retrofit work for 875 properties – one of the largest SHDF projects in the UK.

Neb and a team from Ridge will be at the Homes UK and Unlock Net Zero event at ExCel, London on the 27 and 28 November 2024 (Stand H520) and would love to connect with any attendees before or at the event. You can contact the team via the links below:

Neb Augustinov, Retrofit Lead
Steve Cooper, Building Surveying Lead
Mark Astbury, Property Consultancy Lead (Panel speaker 28 November 2024 11.45: Achieving a culture of compliance as a standard in a world of changing legislation and regulation)
Yusuf Siddiqui, Property Consultancy, London
Becky Hutton, Property Consultancy, Data Management
James Smith, Town and Country Planning
Dan Hubberstey, Property Consultancy, Stock Survey data