Shaking up retrofit with the Mayor of London’s Retrofit Accelerator – Homes Innovation Partnership
The construction industry has an opportunity to change the way we retrofit to meet the scale, speed and cost required for the climate emergency and millions of people experiencing fuel poverty.
The Mayor of London’s Retrofit Accelerator – Homes programme is designed to do just this by helping to transform the way London upgrades its ageing and energy-inefficient housing to create warm, affordable and ultra-low carbon homes.
As part of this, nine social housing providers, seven of which are based in London and four UK building firms, along with a network of suppliers, are working together to stimulate a new market for whole house retrofit across the UK and reduce costs. This is known as the Mayor of London’s Retrofit Accelerator-Homes Innovation Partnership (RA-HIP).
Meet the UK building firms disrupting the status quo
These four UK building firms – known as solution providers - are delivering their retrofits using the Energiesprong approach to whole house retrofit. As part of the RA-HIP they are part of a ‘Collaboration Hub’ with the social housing providers to foster shared learning.
From collaborating with competitors to pioneering industrialisation and guaranteeing energy performance long-term, they are going against the grain in the sector and learning lessons that can be shared across the whole industry.
It’s been a journey, and while there’s still far to go, we’re seeing progress. What are the RA-HIP partners doing differently, what have they learned and why do they think these new and disruptive tactics will help the UK unlock a functioning, self-financing whole house retrofit market?