Residents at the heart of retrofit

How Together Housing Association’s focus on improving homes and lowering energy bills is benefitting both people and the planet

At its heart, retrofitting is about people, creating homes that feel warm, welcoming and affordable, while also supporting our journey to net zero.

That’s the message from Together Housing Association, a large housing provider which manages more than 38,000 properties that house more than 80,000 residents.

A key focus for the association is ensuring homes meet relevant Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) standards. An EPC measures the energy performance of a property from a ‘most efficient’ A to a ‘least efficient’ G.

Energy efficiency ‘retrofit’ upgrades are designed to lift the EPC rating to benefit residents. Properties with higher energy efficiency ratings generally require less energy to heat and power the building meaning energy bills should be cheaper.

Gemma Voaden, senior manager net zero at Together Housing, said: “We have just under 30,000 properties that need to come off gas within the next 10 years. It’s a large number and we want to ensure we’ve got the fabric right first before looking to install technologies like heat pumps.” 

To progress towards this target – alongside its net zero 2050 aim – the association has started a project to upgrade more than 2,000 homes. 

The success is determined by critical work with householders, talking to them about how the upgrades could benefit them.

Sheridan Boyd, Together Housing's senior project coordinator, said: “We have a dedicated team of five tenant liaison officers purely looking after the net zero works that we deliver and they’re key to success.

“They’re genuinely there just to support the residents, explain the journey step-by-step and ensure that, when we’ve finished the work, they’re satisfied with the service they received in the end.”

To support its ambitions to upgrade the 2,000 homes, Together was awarded more than £9.5 million through the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.1.

Funding for this scheme is delivered on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and assured by our teams at Salix. 

Sheridan added: “Each time we deliver a project, we’re making sure we optimise and adapt our approach and communications to address concerns and needs raised through previous schemes.

“The aim with this approach is to ensure that the needs of our residents continue to be met.”

For its next project, the team is working on a ‘retrofit handbook’ which will provide residents with all the information they need in one place, rather than across separate documents.

Gemma added: “We’ve got a proven track record that we actively improve and adapt. 

“It’s because of this that, we believe, tenants are beginning to trust us on the technology as well, ever so slowly, which is a big improvement.

“It’s all a testament to how our tenant liaison officers and project teams explain it to them and walk them through it.”

Another important factor is how the contractors working on site build trust with the community. The association has implemented long-term contracts with suppliers to support this trust-building ambition.

Gemma added: “This emphasises our focus on building long-term relationships with our residents and ensuring their comfort in knowing who to go to with any questions, both pre and post-works.”