£10m retrofit project targets London SMEs

Greenwise Staff

27th January 2011

London-based small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are to benefit from a £10 million project encouraging innovation and best practice in the capital’s emerging green retrofit market.

FLASH is a free programme initially supporting around 1200 SMEs working in London’s built environment, including architects, surveying and engineering practices, small builders, plumbers and electricians. They will receive learning and business support via a network of professional bodies to ensure they do not miss out on the opportunities being presented by the massive retrofit programme London is set to undergo.

The Government has made the retrofitting of Britain’s existing housing stock a key priority in its bid to cut CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. It will launch its flagship policy the Green Deal in autumn 2012, an ambitious programme to insulate the UK’s 21 million 'leaky’ homes. It is estimated the retrofit programme could be worth £200 billion to the UK economy between now and 2050, but entails retrofitting 600,000 properties a year.

London charity the Institute for Sustainability is leading the FLASH project, which is jointly funded by the European Regional Development Fund and is supported by the Technology Strategy Board through its 'Retrofit for the Future' programme.

Programme offering

A partnership programme, FLASH will provide the latest information on sustainable retrofit and new build for residential, municipal and commercial buildings from professional bodies, including The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), RICS and Constructing Excellence, in a way that is accessible and relevant to their trade or profession. Businesses will also have the opportunity to work with leading academic institutions to create innovative solutions to key sustainability problems, as well as receive advice on how to green their own operations.

"The speed at which we need to overhaul our built environment is going to demand we find new ways of doing things," said Dr Neil Johnston, director of Delivery at the Institute For Sustainability. "To meet 2050 targets, we should already be retrofitting 600,000 homes a year, while in fact we are not approaching 10 per cent of that number. Real collaboration across the industry and with the research community currently doesn't happen nearly enough. We have set up FLASH to encourage and deliver this collaborative model."

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