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What is the Innovative Housing Retrofit Scheme?

The ‘Innovative Housing Retrofit Scheme - Hard to Treat’ is testing innovative energy-saving improvements and approaches to retrofit delivery, including householder engagement and addressing technical challenges. There are three pilot projects being delivered by social landlords. 

The scheme is exploring solutions for challenging, hard to treat, properties, such as those built pre 1900s, with solid walls or off the gas grid.  Valuable learning is already being gathered by our delivery partners. This will help them make funding bids for much larger scale projects as they go on to retrofit their wider estates. The regional retrofit supply chain and green skills are also being supported through the scheme. This is helping to maximise new economic opportunities for local residents and businesses. 

The scheme is helping to deliver the West of England Combined Authority’s Climate and Ecological Strategy and Action Plan. This sets an ambition for the region to be net zero carbon by 2030; as well as supporting biodiversity and climate resilience. The Buildings & Places Theme aims to significantly increase retrofit across the region to reduce emissions from homes and other buildings.   

The project is funded through the Green Recovery Fund. This nearly £40m pot has been set up by the Metro Mayor to address the climate and nature emergencies.  

What is the scheme delivering?

Three ‘whole house’ retrofit projects are being delivered under the Innovative Housing Retrofit Scheme:

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House Construction

Brighter Places 

This project is testing, modelling and comparing different strategies for whole house retrofit in 9 houses and flats across 4 pre-1900 housing archetypes in Bristol. Brighter Places is a Housing Association providing homes in Bristol and the surrounding areas. The measures being delivered include solar photovoltaic panels, air source heat pumps, innovative heating systems and monitoring provision.

House Construction

Bristol City Council

Whole house retrofitting of 25 concrete Easiform archetype homes in the Brentry area of Bristol. They are testing a building fabric-first approach to inform the best method of switching these types of homes away from fossil fuels to more low carbon and sustainable heating systems. Innovative measures installed include solar photovoltaic panels and LED lighting systems, with the potential for heat pump technologies to deliver both space heating and hot water production.

People talking at the entrance

Curo

Retrofitting 22 off-gas grid rural bungalows and houses with a suite of energy efficiency measures including external wall insulation, electric vehicle charging points, windows, ventilation, and heating upgrades. Delivered by Curo, a Bath-based Housing Association, the innovative measures being installed also include modern storage heaters, solar photovoltaic panels with battery storage, and monitoring systems.

These projects have been in active delivery since 2023 and are nearing completion.

The retrofit market represents a key sector for the West of England Combined Authority. It will play an important role in achieved the target of net zero carbon emissions by 2030…[but] doing so will require a radical overhaul across the region.

Combined Authority Green Jobs and Skills Retrofit Report