The Retrofit Accelerator for homes is part of the Mayor’s Energy for Londoners programme, and is designed to speed up the pace of cutting carbon emissions and achieving zero carbon by 2050.
… help tackle the climate emergency and reduce energy bills…
… whole-house approach…
… help create new jobs and skills…
London Assembly writes:
With the backing of the European Regional Development Fund, the Retrofit Accelerator for homes will help tackle the climate emergency and reduce energy bills, through insulation and low carbon heat and power solutions.
The programme will provide London boroughs and housing associations the technical expertise they need to kick-start ‘whole-house’ retrofit projects across the capital. It will also help build the supply chain and business case to accelerate the retrofit revolution for private homes.
The whole-house approach upgrades old homes with everything they need to be future-proofed. Measures such as high-spec insulation, renewable heating systems and solar panels are fitted at the same time to radically reduce a home’s energy use and carbon footprint.
London’s homes are responsible for around one third of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and a quarter of them have the worst energy performance rating. This year, Londoners will spend approximately £3.5bn powering their homes, pushing almost 12 per cent of them into fuel poverty.
By working closely with local authorities, government, housing providers and the construction industry, the Retrofit Accelerator will help create new jobs and skills in a growing the low carbon sector.
The aims of Retrofit Accelerator
- Help to London boroughs and housing associations to develop energy efficiency projects at scale with technical and commercial solutions.
- Get started on 1,600 whole-house retrofits in Greater London over the next three years.
- Create a market for the low carbon and environmental goods and services sector, creating new, high-skilled jobs.
- Save over 4,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
- Unlock funding and low-cost finance for energy efficiency projects.
- Tackle fuel poverty by making homes warmer and more affordable.
What’s next?
Our project partners are already working alongside early-adopters to help deliver the first deep whole-house retrofits. But, to achieve our ambitious goals, we need more forward-thinking London boroughs and housing associations to get on board and work with us to transform London’s housing.
If you would like to find out more, contact the team at retrofitaccelerator@london.gov.uk
Programme partners
The £3.6m programme is funded on a 50:50 basis by the Mayor of London and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The delivery partners, led by global professional services company Turner & Townsend, include the pioneering Energiesprong UK, PA Consulting and the Carbon Trust.
What is a ‘deep whole-house retrofit’?
Most retrofitting in the UK to date has involved only minimal intervention – the installation of stand alone energy efficiency measures such as loft insulation or replacement windows. Whole-house retrofit takes a holistic approach to the property, aiming to improve the ‘building fabric’ (walls, windows, floors and roofs), the heating system and to install renewable energy where possible (such as heat pumps and solar panels).
This approach is called ‘deep retrofit’ because it’s a more intense intervention, aiming to achieve deeper levels of carbon savings per home than standard retrofit.
