The UK has one of the oldest housing stocks in Europe which accounts for more than 29% of the total UK energy use. It is calculated that of the 26 million existing dwellings more than 80% will still be in use in 2050.
This retrofit programme, therefore, represents a huge business opportunity, and will require the service of surveyors to energy assessors. From suppliers of materials and products to installers of insulation, building services and renewable energy technologies.
How this mass programme will be delivered is by a number of proposed Government incentives schemes, such as the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), Feed-in Tariff, Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) but predominately by the Green Deal. The Green Deal is a scheme to provide households and landlords (private and social) with third-party funding (from the private sector) for approved low carbon retrofit projects and for the capital cost to the repaid by the Pay As You Save (PAYS) system; the focus of the Green Deal is on improving insulation, air tightness, ventilation and heating and hot water systems but other systems such as renewable energy may be included.
How can I find out more about the retrofit opportunities?
The FLASH programme is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and runs until April 2012. The programme aims to help London-based Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) understand and begin exploiting green building/retrofit opportunities and so promote economic growth and regeneration across London.
In 2012 the Government will be launching the Green Deal, which will provide finance for retrofit measures. To meet the Government's long term low carbon reduction targets, it’s estimated that 600,000 dwellings need to be retrofitted per year. This demonstrates the enormity of the task.
NFRC has been appointed as a network manager along with eight other professional bodies (see below) on the programme, which is led by the Institute for Sustainability. Each network manager is committed to providing a programme of advice and learning for companies within the London Boroughs.
Click to download the FLASH Information Leaflet.