I can imagine the stress for a conscientious, caring individual. Only because I've had to deal with a #retrofit from the point of view of a tenant (the person for whom I care).
The lack of care, the complaining to the local authority to obtain redress, the lack of care of the people who were supposedly remedying the mess... The stress went on and on.
Hoping today is going well for you.
I have spent last 18mths or so working for a company that claimed to provide #retrofit property services to local authorities and housing associations.
We helped these organisations spend their government grants through paying subcontractors to do the actual work.
It’s the most inefficient and shoddy way to do retrofit.
But today I left.
The company I worked for (which had shareholders) was taken over by a bigger property services company owned by a private equity firm.
Yay capitalism!
And if all this is true of the #retrofit industry, it must be the case across many other sectors too.
Neoliberalism fosters this notion that the private sector can be trusted to deliver, while the authority of the state to have direct and effective oversight of work is constantly eroded.
We are collectively paying more than ever for very poor delivery.
From 40 years experience we as a nation know privatisation is the emperor’s new clothes. It just enriches shareholders and delivers nothing.
I believe as a nation as have to take #retrofit seriously.
Around 25% of UK current carbon emissions come from domestic properties. We have the worst housing stock in Northern Europe. It kills around 10,000 a year in winter from being so drafty and expensive to heat…and kills a further 10,000 in summer from overheating.
But how we go about retrofitting our nation’s homes at scale and pace matters too.
I had my final day in my old job today!
I’m so relieved. I hadn’t realised quite how unhappy it had made me until I left this afternoon.
By the end I felt a complete fraud. Private companies managing subcontractors to install for local authorities and housing associations under bureaucratic government funding regulations is a costly and inefficient way to do #retrofit. But until you’ve experienced it, you don’t know how broken the system is, so I don’t regret it.
Because it’s rare to see #retrofit / #sustainability jokes…and I like xkcd:
Alt Text: ‘A covertly-installed Neighbour-Source Heat Pump takes advantage of the fact your neighbour keeps their house cool in the summer and warm in the winter’. Image of two houses, one with a heat pump and then pipes underground leading to the other, extending up the walls in a loop system.
As someone who works in #retrofit in the UK on social housing projects, I’ve come to realise that persuading residents to have these upgrades, even when they are free, is a selling job. That job is best done by an early adopter who is a neighbour/friend.
I found this article encouraging, in that it acknowledges there are economies of scale, but you don’t need 100% buy in from the whole block to make significant progress.
Bring on the street parties!
If you live in Greater Glasgow and would like help in working out how to make energy conscious home improvements, or (increasingly) to adapt your home for the climate crisis then Loco Home is a community owned cooperative that can help you do that (advice, finding installers etc.). https://locohome.coop/ #Retrofit #Glasgow #ClimateCrisis #Scotland (Disclaimer: I volunteer on the board of directors, because I am such a happy customer.)
The ground temperature in #Ireland is around 15ºc, which is a pretty good temperature for a bedroom. In an old, two-storey house, if you only insulate the ground floors from the external walls and go for an "upside down" arrangement, with the bedrooms downstairs and the living rooms upstairs, would that mean you'd never really need to heat the rooms downstairs? 
#Retrofit #Architecture #Renovation #Housing
Retrofitting homes for net zero - report
Energy Security and Net Zero Committee
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmesnz/453/report.html
‘Equipping new homes with heat pumps, solar panels and high-grade insulation at the time of construction would have cost between £5,000 and £8,500 for most of the period since 2016.
Housebuilders, however, have long claimed building to such standards would be prohibitively expensive.’
Europe manages to do this, even US have higher rate of take up of heat pumps than UK.
It’s a dirty race to the bottom in the UK because of lobbying.
A #WealthTax to support a comprehensive #insulation and #retrofit programme would be very welcome…but I would say that as I work to insulate social housing.
My concern is that any huge sum raised needs to be spent in such a way that it makes real impact on homes and is delivered well and at pace. That requires a skilled, dedicated workforce and less fragmentation and bureaucracy around the finance and process of it.
But that would require a serious look at the class tensions of the industry.
#Farage thinks he can create DOGE style cuts at UK local authority level to remove those working in relation to #ClimateCrisis and diversity.
As the article suggests, there is not much left to cut.
Curious whether it will it include those working on social housing #retrofit decarbonisation projects?
"[UK's] Network Rail is planning to remove traditional lineside colour light signals in favour of in-cab signalling systems along key routes. No steam locomotive in the world had ever been run with in-cab digital signalling – until now"
"Clouston said her team also had to factor in the placement of the screens to avoid being hit by a fireman swinging a shovel around..."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/19/nobody-has-done-this-before-britains-beloved-steam-trains-trial-pioneering-technology
#steam #locomotive #IT #retrofit #UK
Many institutions and companies don’t invest in solar pv because they think it will take decades to recover the cost…but really they are missing a trick.
#Norwich University of the Arts have just had a big install (186 panels) that is projected to pay for itself within just 7 years.
A New Mechanical Keyboard for an Old Computer - As computers age, a dedicated few work towards keeping some of the more interestin... - https://hackaday.com/2025/04/10/a-new-mechanical-keyboard-for-an-old-computer/ #mechanicalkeyboard #retrocomputing #commodore64 #3dprinted #commodore #keyboard #retrofit #pcb
Spent most of the day looking at photos which suggest retrofit designers have little idea of the practicalities of installing internal wall insulation into social housing properties…
- Fitted wall to wall wardrobes
- Ornate coving and cornicing
- Wallpaper
- Skirting boards with beading that perfectly match wooden floorboards
- Radiators on external walls
The idea that tenants will let you strip away all of this and put it back together on a shoestring is for the birds.
@marjolica A lot of the problem is also that few installers understand that much of the county's housing stock deals with moisture differently to new builds. Historic England has good advice on retrofiting older buildings.
#Retrofit #EnergyEfficiency #Insulation
I’m all for getting private landlords to increase the the EPC rating of their properties to a ‘C’…that’s where we were supposed to be by 2025, but the #Tories never legislated for it.
Despite the puff of their press release, this is just another #Labour consultation with an ambition to achieve it by 2030.
Less talk, more action needed.
Currently exploring opportunities within the field of domestic #retrofit and #sustainability within #Norfolk and #Suffolk. Would consider remote working as well.
If you are aware of potential project coordinator/administrator roles coming up in these fields please let me know.
Have experience from local council, housing association, private installer and activist perspective.
Particular area of interest and knowledge: retrofit in social housing and low income households.
Please boost!
