The UK’s housing stock will need to be carbon neutral by 2050. Whole-house retrofit aims to improve the energy efficiency of a property. This includes improving the ‘building fabric’ (walls, windows, floors and roofs), the heating system and installing renewable energy where possible, such as heat pumps and solar panels. Councils are working hard to retrofit their own housing stock, whilst building construction skills in the community to create new jobs. The LGA is launching a new offer to provide support to local authorities in creating housing retrofit skills and jobs in their area. The LGA will work in partnership with a consortium, led by Sustainability West Midlands, bringing together the expertise and experience of the Sustainable Housing Action Partnership (SHAP), Low Carbon Homes and Contented who will deliver the LGA housing retrofit skills action learning. On the programme, five groups will meet using online platforms, four times between November 2021 and February 2022 in action learning sessions, with individual project work to be undertaken in between each session. Four mixed groups of local government housing, economic and climate change officers and one group of members will have a chance to come together from a variety of councils to share experiences and learn together to specifically focus on how to build skills in the area of housing retrofit. For further information, click here.
