Retrofit hackathon

The UK has the oldest housing stock in Europe and 5 million of these are social and affordable homes.

The sheer scale of the retrofitting task is huge and 2 homes per minute need to be retrofitted to meet the 2050 net zero target.

To do this we need hundreds of thousands of new retrofitters, delivering home decarbonisation at a scale never seen before.

Social landlords and local authorities have a major role to play in building the future workforce and potentially creating training and employment opportunities for tenants and communities. 

Landlords also face the challenge of gaining tenant consent to intrusive works with new and unfamiliar technologies. How can we collaborate to gain trust and ensure long-term success?

The retrofit hackathon 2022

The retrofit hackathon at HOMES UK brought people together in a collaborative environment to help solve the retrofit challenge.
 
Working in teams, attendees rapidly built innovative and practical ideas with the potential to be implemented at scale.
 
The two central themes they tackled were:
 
“How do we attract and retain a skilled workforce that has capacity to deliver retrofit at scale?”
 
and
 
“How do we engage tenants to build trust and confidence in retrofit works?”
 
Teams pitched their ideas to a panel of experts who chose the solution that they believed would have the biggest impact on the retrofit challenge.
 

The ideas 

The shortlisted ideas were: 

• A TV show called “Retrofit! Retrofit! Retrofit!” that could focus on the benefits for occupants and opportunities for builders in domestic retrofit. To include a myth-busting discussion of the common misconceptions with real world examples on the different approaches possible.
• #Retrofit= is a digital campaign and resource educating the public on the benefits of retrofit. Asking the question: “what does retrofit mean for you?” It would explore the various categories including: home upgrade, warmer homes, healthier families and saving fuel.
• Green upgrade – a national advertising campaign to rebrand retrofit. Using early, simple messages such as ’upgrade your home now and reduce your bills forever’. Arranging home visits with multi-skilled people and creating archetypes of different tenants to tailor the message and service to their needs. Different levels of thermostat controls for different resident groups. Early adopters of each tenant type will act as ambassadors. The aim would be to make everyone aware of retrofit and its benefits to them.

The winner

The TV show idea was the winner!  

With thanks to the facilitators:

• David Pierpoint, chief executive, The Retrofit Academy
• Mark Southgate, chief executive, MOBIE 

With thanks to the mentors and judges:

• Jo Atkinson, head of building engineering, Active Building Centre
• Andrea Baxter, environmental manager, Believe Housing
• Andrew Cameron-Smith, editorial director, Unlock Net Zero
• Dan Cook, chief executive, Active Building Centre
• Jon Daley, asset sustainability and data manager, Magenta Living
• Nik Flytzanis, global director of marketplace, Plentific
• Kathryn Fox-Rogers, chief operating officer, Johnnie Johnson Housing
• Susan French, chief executive, Barnsbury Housing Association
• Julie Godefroy, head of sustainability, CIBSE
• Ellie Jenkins, partner, Akerlof
• Tania Jennings, principal domestic energy officer, London Borough of Ealing
• Stephen Mackenzie, resident and member of Social Housing Tenants  Climate Jury    
• Dominic Millen, retrofit London programme director, London Borough of Enfield
• Paul Norman, head of asset management, Clarion Housing Group