A model to retrofit homes

Sponsored by E.ON

Adam Jones, head of business development and pre-contract at E.ON Green Funding Solutions, a team which draws on government-funded schemes to retrofit homes, discusses a successful project, and Libby Kerman, sustainability manager at Lincolnshire Housing Partnership, shares lessons from retrofitting harder-to-treat homes

Lincolnshire Housing Partnership aims to deliver external wall insulation to 733 properties, such as the ones pictured above (picture: Vicki Head Photography)

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Adam Jones of E.ON Green Funding Solutions discusses a successful retrofit project, and Libby Kerman of LHP shares lessons from retrofitting harder-to-treat homes (sponsored) #UKhousing

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Our work with Lincolnshire Housing Partnership (LHP) in Immingham and Grimsby was one of the largest government-funded social housing projects under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. The project formed one of the UK’s largest external wall insulation (EWI) projects, and aimed to bring more than 730 homes up to an Energy Performance Certificate Band C rating. This huge project was made possible by our Green Funding Solutions team, which successfully secured £8m of funding for LHP.

The homes are now more energy efficient, easier to keep warm and cost less to heat for residents. The EWI has also replaced the grey pebbledash with a fresh white render, giving the estates an updated look.

However, the project faced its fair share of challenges. We encountered some unforeseen asbestos issues, which meant we needed to spend time surveying and removing the asbestos. This led to increased costs and significant delays, but it was imperative that we complied with health and safety regulations to ensure residents’ well-being.

We also struggled to find suitable locations for site compounds and laydown areas, due to space limitations and logistical constraints. However, collaboration with LHP facilitated strategic positioning, ensuring that essential materials and equipment were accessible without causing major disruption to residents or site operations. Another key focus was ensuring minimal disruption to tenants overall – we assessed needs on an individual basis and adjusted our approach to the installations accordingly.

As a result of the new measures, many of the residents said they felt a renewed sense of pride in their homes. Some even thought that anti-social behaviour on the Immingham Estate had reduced as residents had a new focus: working together to improve their community. On top of these benefits, residents could also save up to £375 per year on their energy bills, making a huge difference in these financially challenging times.

As a result of the partnership’s work in Immingham and Grimsby, LHP won the Insulation and Fabric Project of the Year 2024 at the National Energy Efficiency Awards. We couldn’t be prouder of the difference we’ve made, and our work with LHP is a testament to the power of partnership.

Adam Jones, head of business development and pre-contract at E.ON Green Funding Solutions, which draws on retrofit funding

Prior to applying for Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) Wave 2.1 funding, LHP had just over 1,000 non-traditional properties that were very poorly insulated. They were of solid wall construction, cold and draughty, and very hard to treat. These properties are also in one of the most deprived areas of the UK, which only escalates both the challenge and the need to improve them.

Our ongoing Wave 2.1 project has drawn down £8m of government funding, match-funded by LHP, to create a £16m project. Within that, we’re aiming to deliver external wall insulation (EWI) to 733 properties and air source heat pumps to a further 82 properties. To date, we have begun EWI on 625 properties and have completed installation on 435 homes.

We’ve learned several lessons from the works so far, beginning with the importance of preparation before submitting the bid. Here, as a small internal team, we very much leant on the expertise and experience of our delivery partner, E.ON. The company used specialist software to pull our property data together and to cross-check for any anomalies that might cause issues down the line. The information we gleaned from that intensive data analysis stage proved hugely valuable during the bid-writing process.

We also found that it’s really important to begin customer engagement as early as possible. We had a formalised customer engagement process, we still have weekly calls in which we engage with all stakeholders, and we also have a dedicated customer liaison officer.

The first property where we installed EWI was one of our empty homes. We were then able to use that as a site office and show home in the centre of the estate, which allowed us to have plenty of conversations and contact with residents. That was definitely a huge win.

733
Total homes getting external wall insulation

625
Homes where this work has already started

Installing EWI can be noisy – and although we don’t often have to go inside the properties we are treating, it can be quite visually intrusive.

Phased project

We grouped this project into two phases, in two different estates, and there were vans and scaffolding everywhere. So having had those conversations with customers to explain the benefits of EWI, and to quash any concerns they had very early on, meant that we weren’t tackling refusals as we were trying to deliver
at pace.

We began the works phase by grouping our non-traditional properties by type: three-bedroom properties, maisonettes and blocks of flats. The idea was to enable the delivery of the project at scale to flow a lot easier; within each type the properties are similarly constructed, and that meant we could mirror the early retrofit assessment for each type in the design stage and repeat it throughout the programme.

One of the biggest challenges we faced was poor weather. That shouldn’t be hugely surprising given we live in the UK, but we worked through a record-breaking wet winter in 2023-24, and that did have a knock-on effect on the speed at which we were able to deliver. To combat that, we planned works around 14-day weather forecasts, and we tried to install a lot of scaffolding early on so that as many properties as possible were ready for the dry days when they arrived.

We also used a new type of base coating for the EWI that can be used in lower temperatures and has a faster drying time. Taken together, these measures meant we could finalise more properties on time, despite the cold and wet conditions.

Another lesson we learned was the importance of collecting EPC data and performing retrofit assessments as early as possible. We did come across a few surprises; some EPCs were lower than we anticipated, for example, which meant we had to install additional measures to bring them up to standard.

Getting that preparatory work done early on in the process really helped us with budgeting and delivery planning. And again, I can’t emphasise enough how much of a benefit that early customer engagement work has been.

Our customer liaison officer from E.ON actually lives on site for most of the week, so customers on those estates have got to know her. She has become a part of the community now, and I’m sure they won’t want her to go! Having that trusted individual on site means we gain better insights from our customers, and that has been hugely beneficial to the project as a whole.