£3m to accelerate ‘green’ retrofit of UK housing stock

The UK housing market is responsible for 24 per cent of the country’s CO2 emissions and 80 per cent of existing homes will still be standing in 2050. It estimated as many residential properties as those in a city the size of Cambridge will need to be upgraded every week by 2020 if the UK is to meet its target of reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), a public private partnership tasked with developing low carbon technologies, is behind the 'green’ retrofit research project. The aim of the scheme is to improve the supply chain so that a mass-scale retrofit programme can get underway. It will particularly look at ways to 'industrialise’ the processes of design, supply and implementation of a 'green’ refurbishment programme.

"Persuading consumers to take-up refurbishment and technology retrofit opportunities requires us to address the challenge of creating supply chains and delivery routes that consumers trust and which they consider affordable," explained Dr David Clarke, ceo of the ETI.

According to the Government, getting all 26 million UK homes energy efficient by 2050, will require retrofitting 40,000 homes a year by 2015 and 1.8 million homes a year by 2020.

Commenting on the launch of today’s initiative, the Government’s chief construction adviser Paul Morrell, said the challenge was daunting but it was critical to get things right. "This is way beyond the scale of anything attempted before, and it calls for a response from the industry that addresses that scale whist acknowledging that, to its occupier, every home is uniquely valuable.

"Getting things right, in terms of what we do and how we do it, is critical, and this research project will make an essential contribution to making sure that we do get it right."