Retrofitting heritage homes – A consortia led approach in a conservation area
Introduction
Lynn, aged 69, lives alone as a widowed housewife in a 3-bedroom social home in the Redditch area, where she has lived for the past 36 years.
Her home has a 1960’s extension and like her neighbours, experienced drafts in the kitchen through the doors and windows. To stay comfortable, Lynn had to keep her heating on all the time.
Lynn’s home was selected to be part of a retrofitting project led by Orbit Housing Association (HA), in partnership with Stratford-on-Avon District Council.
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Retrofitting Lynn and her neighbours’ homes – the challenges posed by heritage homes
The project to improve Lynn’s home, alongside 69 others in Stratford-on-Avon, was awarded £1.45 million as part of the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Demonstrator Fund (SHDF) scheme. All the properties were EPC B and D or below and included a mix of solid wall houses and bungalows, which are inherently hard to treat.
The project was located in the heart of Stratford- on- Avon, a conservation area known as “Shakespeare Country’ after the birthplace of the famous English poet. The Council’s controls to protect the historic and architectural elements which make the place special, meant that most homes required either applications for lawful development certificates or full planning permission. And, for historic buildings, an application to the local planning department for listed building consent. This presented challenges to conducting the retrofit works, adding both time and cost.
The benefits of a Consortia Led approach - sharing best practice, innovation, and opportunities to collaborate
Stratford-on-Avon District Council and Orbit Housing Association agreed to work in conjunction with another Midlands based consortium – which were responsible for another SHDF Demonstrator funded project in the Midlands area.
This second consortia was made up of Wychavon District, Rooftop Housing Association, Citizen Housing Association, Trent & Dove Housing Association, and Trident Housing Association.
As well as being geographically close, both projects were also focused on treating similar property types. Although they continued to operate as two separate projects, this approach allowed all five housing associations to collaborate and share best practice, innovation, and opportunities to collaborate to improve delivery.
First steps to transforming Lynn’s home
The project to upgrade Lynn and her neighbours’ homes used an “incremental attribute” approach which combined various energy efficiency improvements, to reduce fuel bills and improve the comfort and wellbeing of residents in their homes. It also demonstrated how social housing landlords can achieve a realistic and replicable price point for the retrofit of homes.
In the first phase of the work, new windows and sealed air vents were installed in Lynn’s home. She has already seen improvements and no longer notices drafts around the windows. When we spoke with Lynn, she was looking forward to the final installation of retrofit measures.
“I’m pleased with the fantastic improvements already made… the improvements do work and I would recommend the improvements to others."
