This year we have hit the ground running. We have already delivered 11 HERO Plans and therefore made great progress towards overall financial and carbon savings. See below our calculated savings if each household were to go ahead with the retrofit measures we recommended:

These CO2 savings are equivalent to 14.5 cars being taken off the road each year, 22.5 tons of waste being recycled rather than landfilled. It would also take 77.6 acres of forest to offset this output each year, showing just how impactful retrofit can be.

With it being the first month of 2024, we thought we’d get off on the right foot by looking back at the recent progress made in the retrofit sphere, whilst also thinking about the improvements we can expect in the next few years.

In 2023 we saw £6 billion from the government, in order to improve building energy efficiency across the country. In particular, this included an extra £1.5 billion added to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), meaning that the grant for installing a heat pump raised from £5k to £7.5k. Because of this increase, we saw applications for heat pump installations rise dramatically, which is great news.

To keep this momentum going, a further £1.5 billion was committed to the BUS fund, for it to run from 2025-2028. Other progress includes a possible new proposal that would mean new homes from 2025 will have to find alternatives to gas boilers, this is part of The Future Homes and Building Standards 2023 Consultation. Likewise, commercial properties will need an EPC of C or above from 2025 onwards.

All this movement is great news for the retrofit sphere, but it is certainly not enough to reach Net Zero by 2050, therefore we must continue to press for more and more solutions from the government. Additionally, we must also look to our own homes and carbon footprint to ensure we are doing all that we can.
 

Speaking of taking action this new year, it is only prudent that we mention The National Retrofit Conference, hosted by Futurebuild, which is a 3-day event taking place from the 5th-7th of March. This is a brilliant opportunity for like-minded individuals to get together and “create a roadmap for retrofit that is clear, concise and collaborative”. Whether you’re a professional in this area, or a resident with significant interest in retrofit, this is a brilliant opportunity to hear from government ministers, industry professionals and leading suppliers.

Of course, several members of our team here at SuperHomes are attending the event and we would love to see you there. In order to book your place, head to the websites linked above and register your interest – note that each day targets a different retrofit matter and may therefore sway your decision as to which one you attend. Day 1 is Retrofit Policy, Innovation and Skills; Day 2 is Retrofit Professionals Day: PAS2035 in Practice – Speeding it Up, Scaling it Up; and Day 3 is Supporting the Resident’s Journey. All tickets are free!

 

As Hampshire is one of the counties that we service via the SuperHomes Community, we were excited to see that a new local village in the area is taking great steps towards a greener future.

Welborne Garden Village has been 17+ years in the making: it will be a village of 6,000 homes with shops, schools, commercial and healthcare facilities, all heated and cooled via an underground water reservoir. This will not only save residents on energy bills, but also emit 90% less carbon than a gas boiler, and 50% less than an air source heat pump.

If Welborne is fully developed, it is said to be the UK’s largest water-source low-carbon heating/cooling network. To find out more, listen in to the Welborne Podcast where those behind the project discuss the thought processes behind this community. 
 

Furbnow announces investment to roll-out housing decarbonisation - elemental (elementaldigital.co.uk)

As you may already know, we have previously worked closely with Furbnow and continue to refer residents outside our geographical remit to this fantastic company, as we share the same core values. It therefore comes of no surprise to us that they are making incredible progress towards our Net Zero goal of 2050.

Furbnow has raised a staggering £950k to create a platform which will decarbonise 1 million homes from start to finish by 2030, removing the hassle of retrofit for those residents. These kinds of projects are crucial to reducing our carbon footprint as 97% of homes are still considered as energy inefficient. 

Co-founder and CEO of Furbnow says “Everyone deserves a warm, comfortable home without costly bills and yet 11.7 million homes sit at the D energy rating or less.” 
 

From the 1^st of February 2024, the Government has agreed to a zero-VAT rating on all battery storage and heat pump installations. This campaign, ran by MCS and proudly supported by NEF, will see a dramatic decrease in the cost of installing batteries and heat pumps for homeowners by 20%, and will therefore encourage the uptake of these energy efficient measures.

This call for VAT relief began back in March 2022, where the government discussed tax incentives worth £280 million to “improve the energy efficiency of British homes over a five-year period.” After a call for evidence back in March 2023, the government issued a Summary of Responses in December 2023, confirming the VAT relief that 106 businesses and organisations had been advocating for.

This relief will last from the 1^st of February 2024 until the 31^st of March 2027, when the VAT will revert to 5%, followed by further discussion within government.
 

On the 3^rd January 2024, the Government published a guidance document outlining how historic homes in England can be adapted to become more energy efficient. It is pleasing that guidance for this has been put forward by central Government as it is a key barrier in the UK’s road to Net Zero by 2050. Data from Historic England in 2022 estimated there to be around 350,000 listed buildings in England, and around 2.8million homes located in conservation areas and so these buildings are impossible to ignore if we are to be Net Zero by 2050.

The review from the Government outlined several ways in which historic homes are constrained to retrofit, and they range from local authority planning departments to the supply chain. It is pleasing to see local authorities acknowledging that more needs to be done to make sure those working in planning and conservation departments have the skills and knowledge to make informed decisions, as research has shown there to be big discrepancies between local authorities of this knowledge and also a high turnover rate of staff in these departments, resulting in a backlog of planning applications and potentially mis-guided advice being given to homeowners.

However, this is just one area that limits the retrofit options of historic homes, and it is evident that further support and guidance is needed from Government. The lack of a national retrofit strategy prohibits local authorities, the supply chain, and homeowners to have a unified understanding on retrofitting and it is with historic homes where this is particularly clear. This review from the Government is a step forward, but there is still a lot more to do so that historic buildings can be retrofitted whilst maintaining their historical significance.
 

-Sally Hodgkinson, Project Manager

Deciding on your next heating system can be a huge decision and one that now requires more research than ever. Be it cost, environmental impact, or efficiency, there are so many factors to consider before your purchase. Fortunately, recent developments in the home heating sector have made it easier to predict how your home will be kept warm in the future.

One thing we know for certain is that the government intends to phase out the use of standard gas boilers as it attempts to reach its net zero targets. This is vital as current gas boiler heating systems are producing upwards of 58 million tons of CO2 a year, this is equal to the CO2 emissions of all 27 million cars in the UK (The National Housing Federation).

Therefore, it’s important to understand what will be replacing this in your home. One of the governments favourites to take its place was the Hydrogen Boiler. This experimental technology aimed to provide homes in the UK with a low carbon alternative heating system that would not require many changes to millions of households current heating pipework. However, this technology has recently been deemed inappropriate for newly built houses with the government planning to ban their use in newbuild homes in England from 2025. Unfortunately, many backers from the natural gas industry and government have not abandoned this technology quite yet, and so it cannot be completely ruled out.

Fortunately, there is another system that is able to provide low-carbon heating for households across the UK, and that system is the heat pump. This technology appears to be the most likely successor to the gas boiler, with its extremely impressive efficiency and low environmental impact.

Heat pumps are quickly gaining traction across the UK following the introduction of the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant. This incentive has helped the uptake of heat pumps rise by 49% when compared to last year. However, this still only accounts for 1% of households in the UK, which is an extremely small percentage of the population, especially when it is compared to nations such as Norway, where the current percentage of households with heat pumps has hit 60%.

Unfortunately, one of the reasons behind our slow uptake can be attributed to ‘Campaigns of misinformation’ according to Lord Callanan the energy minister. He believes that those with vested interest in maintaining the current supply of gas boilers are spreading as much bad publicity as possible to put the population off trusting this technology, making our journey to net zero all the more difficult.
 

-Reuben Whyatt, Project Officer
 

 

If you’re feeling inspired to look at the carbon footprint of your property, getting a Retrofit Plan is the first step to take. Head to our ‘SuperHomes Plans’ page on our website to find out more.