00:00:00:00 - 00:00:07:00 Unknown I'm Rachel Owens. I'm, director of the National Retrofit Hub and Head of Sustainability at Buckley Gray Yeoman.. We're architects. 00:00:07:13 - 00:00:22:07 Unknown So we're at UKREiiF here today in rainy Leeds. and the events really looking at the whole of the property industry, all of the built environment, but with a focus on sustainability, reducing energy demand and decarbonization. 00:00:22:14 - 00:00:41:17 Unknown I found it really great being here because we at the National Retrofit Hub do have quite a large audience. So we have specifically retrofit stakeholders. We've got about 1600 people in our network that are really focused on retrofit, particularly at a domestic sort of scale but it's great being here at UKREiiF because there are people from all across the sector. 00:00:41:17 - 00:00:54:15 Unknown So people from energy, people from local authorities, from developers looking at infrastructure projects. and it's really helping to see how all of these pieces of the pitch are tied together. Because fundamentally, the built environment is one system. 00:00:54:23 - 00:01:28:08 Unknown The question I'm asked the most at the minute is really around skills. People are really interested in how we're going to fill the big skills gap that we have in the retrofit industry. Historic England estimates that about 86,000 new people every year are needed in the retrofit industry, particularly for historic buildings. So people want to know, how are we going to fill those skills gaps, but how are we going to make the jobs in the retrofit really equitable, make them good quality, improve the diversity of people in the retrofit sector, to fundamentally deliver, equity and our health and wellbeing goals. 00:01:28:08 - 00:01:40:05 Unknown So I think the barriers to attending retrofit courses are quite diverse depending on the types of audiences. So for example, small builders are a really key part of the picture in delivering retrofit. 00:01:40:07 - 00:02:08:13 Unknown Apparently about 60% of them get asked about energy efficiency when they talk to private home owners, but they've got very full job books and they're not necessarily incentivized to do additional training in retrofit. And they find it hard to gain back the money from the time that they have to take off to do the training. So one thing that we really need there is local retrofit skills plans that support SMEs to engage with training, and enabling them to whatever project they're working on, make sure that they're embedding energy efficiency. 00:02:08:13 - 00:02:24:14 Unknown So if they're doing a kitchen extension, can they also talk to that client about what they need to do to improve the performance of their home? In terms of other people in the sector, I think school leavers are going to be a huge part of building this new workforce, and we need to do more to make the careers more visible, more exciting. 00:02:24:16 - 00:02:51:01 Unknown in Ireland, they're doing some great work around having mobile rigs, so they have these big trucks then fitted out with heat pumps, with PV panels, with insulation, so that they can drive these to schools, park them in the parking lot for a week, and then the students can come in, they can interact with them and really get excited about a career in retrofit and see it as being part of the route to sustainability, because I think once we make that connection, we'll really start attracting more people into the sector. 00:02:51:01 - 00:02:58:12 Unknown the retrofit hub was really set up because what we wanted to do was not wait, we didn't want to wait for government policy that was going to deliver all of this retrofit. 00:02:58:14 - 00:03:17:04 Unknown We wanted to see, okay, if we brought the industry together, how many of the barriers to retrofit can we overcome as a group so that when policy does start to move at more of a pace, we're ready to go? There were so many changes that we could call for. So, for example, the minimum energy efficiency standards were going to be increased to see for rental properties. 00:03:17:10 - 00:03:42:18 Unknown We'd love to see that happening because that was driving quite a lot of retrofit in the private rental sector. but we also think that there could be more support for community groups who are trying to advocate for retrofit at a local level to enable them to really have the resources that they need to bring people on board and replicate some of the great work that groups such as Retrofit Balsall Heath have been doing, where they've been tapping into government funding to deliver retrofit within their own communities. 00:03:42:23 - 00:04:02:17 Unknown Yeah. We think it's really important to have a single voice that's really representing what the industry needs to scale up. Retrofit, for example. There's been a lot of debate about fabric. First or fabric fifth. Our position is that it should be led by outcomes. It should be led by people. and you should be thinking when you're designing a retrofit project, okay, what are the outcomes I'm trying to achieve? 00:04:02:17 - 00:04:22:13 Unknown Am I trying to address fuel poverty? Is it about health and wellbeing by addressing damp and mould or is the requirement and the objective decarbonization and each of those different outcomes is probably going to lead you to a different route, which is absolutely fine. But I think these polarizing debates about whether or not we should be considering fabric at all aren't necessarily helpful. 00:04:22:15 - 00:04:36:08 Unknown We need to think about it much more holistically from a people centered approach. So that's something that as a unified voice, we'd like to sort of really get behind and make sure that those in the retrofit industry are well represented by that sort of, statement. 00:04:36:10 - 00:04:43:02 Unknown I'd say that I got into the retrofit industry because I was really passionate about tackling the climate and biodiversity crisis. 00:04:43:04 - 00:05:06:14 Unknown But the thing that actually makes me really passionate, right now is the fact that we're also in a health crisis. And I think if we were to ground health at the center of all the decisions we make, then everything else gets unlocked as well. Fundamentally making sure that people's homes perform well for the people that live within them is also going to unlock us decarbonizing our homes, reducing air pollution, improving our climate resilience. 00:05:06:14 - 00:05:28:06 Unknown So all these pieces are locked together. In terms of the urgency, I think we need to expand people's perception of retrofit. We need to talk about it more in the media. we need to scale up the pace of schemes that are getting delivered through government. The Social Housing Decarbonization Fund has really scaled up the pace of retrofit in that sector. 00:05:28:08 - 00:05:45:06 Unknown That scheme isn't perfect. It has to be delivered to really short timescales. The funding is balanced in a way that isn't always the best for the local authorities. You've got to spend 40% in the first year, which for those of us that work in construction projects know that that isn't realistic. Those programs are great. They need to be improved. 00:05:45:06 - 00:06:01:07 Unknown They need to be scaled up. Potentially the fact that local authorities have to bid in into them in the first place doesn't always work, because these are all local authorities that are trying to do great things. They're trying to do the same things as one another. So we need to support that local authority level to really engage more and to deliver. 00:06:01:13 - 00:06:08:22 Unknown And then I think that will help drive the rest of the sector to be able to deliver. For those who might not qualify for funding right now, 00:06:08:22 - 00:06:23:18 Unknown Quality assurance is really important to us. Fundamentally we need to make sure that we're considering the whole building as a system. And we think that standards like PAS2035 are really important in enabling us to deliver that and prevent unintended consequences. 00:06:23:20 - 00:06:47:22 Unknown We need to be thinking about ventilation on all of our projects. and we need much more certainty around the quality of installation that happens. Lots of people doing great work on this. The IEA has installation assurance schemes. the Retrofit Standards Task Group are looking at how they can improve, pass and make it able to be accessed and used by a much broader, sort of part of the retrofit sector. 00:06:47:24 - 00:07:07:17 Unknown And I think it would also help if people that work in the sector had a better understanding of what all the QA frameworks are and how they can work together. So we're doing some work at the National Retrofit Hub to lay out the picture of quality assurance, help you to understand when you need to use certain processes, and how they can help you to make the right decisions that protect people's homes. 00:07:11:01 - 00:07:29:15 Unknown In terms of SHDF, the Social Housing Decarbonization Fund, we've had waves one and two. We're about to go into wave three. Lots of local authorities were telling us that the period by which they had to spend the money was too short, and the requirements put on them to spend a certain amount on certain projects within a certain time were unrealistic. 00:07:29:21 - 00:07:56:04 Unknown We all had really horrible stories about local authorities that were forced to send some of the money back, because they just weren't able to achieve the specific retrofits on the specific homes within the first year, or the was two years that they had originally bid into the fund with. So I think we need more flexibilities for local authorities to be able to make changes once they start doing design work, and they might realize that some retrofit on some projects is harder than they originally thought. 00:07:56:06 - 00:08:14:17 Unknown We need some flexibility for them to be able to make change. I think we're also hearing that they should be able to spend the money over a longer period of time, and maybe the weighting of when that money needs to be spent should be changed. I think SHDF round three is proposing three years, 40% in the first year, 40% in the second, 20% in the third. 00:08:14:19 - 00:08:35:07 Unknown I'm an architect by background, and I know that that's not how money is spent on construction projects. You spend most of it at the end after doing a hell of a lot of design work at the start. So I think that if we could try and embed that within those delivery schemes would enable local authorities to really deliver more outcomes for the people that they're working with. 00:08:35:07 - 00:08:44:05 Unknown So the national retrofit hub itself isn't a lobbying organization, but what we are saying is we're really encouraging local authorities and people that bidding for these funds to respond. 00:08:44:11 - 00:09:03:08 Unknown Within this, there's a window where you're able to make responses by, I think, the 3rd of June. please do respond to that. to that sort of question, and say what your experience is, have been because I think by bringing the voices of the local authorities to that, it will help to, to change the system. 00:09:03:12 - 00:09:12:16 Unknown at the National Retrofit Hub, we have six different working groups and we have curated those based on feedback we have gathered from the industry. 00:09:12:16 - 00:09:29:09 Unknown Working group one is thinking about how do we make the right decisions on the right homes, but how do we do that scale. So it's looking at how do we best use data and then make that more available to retrofit designers and stakeholders. And also how do we embed quality assurance across the piece? Working Group two is looking at supply chain products and solutions. 00:09:29:11 - 00:09:48:09 Unknown So how do we enable more innovation in the space. How do we enable the uptake of products that aren't necessarily business as usual, such as the more bio based installations? and how do we unlock supply chain uncertainty? Working Group three is looking at workforce growth in skills. So bringing more people into the industry, making sure that careers are really well defined. 00:09:48:09 - 00:10:10:13 Unknown What a good quality. Four is looking at finance, because we know that finance is a huge piece of unlocking this puzzle, and it's starting to think about how could you embed finance within the delivery systems to support people that might be able to pay right now? And also, how do you unlock more finance for those that big group of people in the middle that aren't covered by government funding and aren't able to pay themselves? 00:10:10:15 - 00:10:29:15 Unknown and the banks have been really engaging in that debate because fundamentally, if you have a mortgage with a bank, your energy use is part of that banks scope three emissions. So the bank itself is really incentivized to help you upgrade your home. Our fifth working group is looking at delivery, thinking about how different models work and what we can learn from each of them to improve them. 00:10:29:17 - 00:10:54:24 Unknown And it's also looking at international examples from places like Ireland and Italy that have much more comprehensive and advanced retrofitting strategies. And finally, our sixth group is looking at driving uptake. How do we improve, citizens perception of retrofit? How do we make this something that people want, that they make this connection in their minds between their bills, between their health and wellbeing and their home performance, so that we can drive uptake in that way as well. 00:10:54:24 - 00:11:11:13 Unknown So there are the six key themes that we're going to be focusing on over the next year or two. we'd also like to do more to support groups regionally, to support groups like a community level, to be able to grow capacity. There. and I think each of those six groups will feed into that bigger picture. 00:11:11:13 - 00:11:39:02 Unknown I think there's a lot of excitement in the retrofit industry as a whole. We're seeing this really be on the agenda at all the conferences. I'm going to it's really, really been talked about a lot more. And I think that we see this as a really important area for growth locally. I think if we do retrofit, right, there's this real ability to create skills at a local level to create good quality jobs within the areas that actually need the work done so that we can help as part of the leveling up agenda. 00:11:39:02 - 00:12:03:16 Unknown So I think that's really exciting. How do we unlock that? How do we support councils to make skills plans that mean that local people can access? This is as a really important part of the economy in terms of concerns. I think it's all about quality. I think it's not forgetting things like ventilation. I think it's about seeing the home as one holistic system and not being carried away with one solution or sort of one off measures. 00:12:03:16 - 00:12:22:11 Unknown I think the concern, but particularly with more technical people, is that we need to keep thinking about the building in the round and making the right decisions along that, along that building's journey to net zero and to better health and wellbeing. Whether or not we do it all at once maybe doesn't really matter. We need we can really work in a phased approach. 00:12:22:13 - 00:12:29:22 Unknown But, we need to have a long term plan for each building so that we're not making, measures that we'll later regret. 00:12:29:22 - 00:12:48:11 Unknown So I would say to those companies that are working in the construction sector that are thinking about sending their staff for retrofit training, if you do, it's going to provide your company with long term resilience. We know that the demand is out there. We know that this is all in the pipeline, and there's a lot of work that's going to be done over the next ten, 20, 30 years. 00:12:48:13 - 00:12:53:24 Unknown So by upskilling your staff right now, you're helping to really ensure the future of your company.