Nick Owens Retrofit Coordinator & a director of several community benefit societies in Sussex
Leaky homes and fuel poverty abound
The UK has millions of homes that leak heat – we are told it’s the worst housing stock in Europe. We additionally have millions of people in fuel poverty: the UK’s Annual Fuel Poverty statistics were published in March 2025. These figures showed:
- a fall in the official levels of fuel poverty to 2.73 million, 11% of households, the lowest on record.
- The average fuel poverty gap fell by 4%, but is still £407 per household.
- 59.5% of all low-income households now live in a property that is C rated or better.
- The number of households required to spend more than 10% of their income (after housing costs) on energy has increased to 8.99 million.
Global warming is bringing wilder wetter weather that damages building fabric even faster than in the past. Yet we are told that the Government has insufficient plans to hit its “carbon budgets” for 2028-32 and 2033-37 on the journey to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Decarbonising buildings has to be a big part of these plans, but it is not happening at scale. In the year to December 2024, only 42,600 heat pumps were installed under government schemes compared to a target of 600,000 per year. Insulation schemes are subject to intermittent policy changes – for example the Home Upgrade Scheme Phase 2 (“HUG2”) ended in March 2025.
Community organisations in the main offer solar PV but not retrofit
Community Benefit Societies (“CBSs”) are dipping their toes in the home improvement market, but this is not having major impact. Navigating building regulations, procurement processes, and liability concerns can be daunting for community organisations without qualified and insured professional legal teams, retrofit assessors, designers and retrofit coordinators (specialist project managers):
- An example is OVESCO – Ouse Valley Energy Services Company, a “Community Interest Company” who like many CBSs employs “energy champions” to advise householders on how to stop draughts, keep warm, challenge high bills and apply for grants; but they are not and don’t claim to be retrofit specialists who can assess moisture risks and correctly design insulation. Since the funding of their energy champions is reliant on short-term grants from the council, charities and others, their process is somewhat stop-start and not yet a good base for delivering a service and expertise long term.
- HKD Energy, another CBS bordering the South Downs National Park, has a chairman (unpaid) who is a Retrofit Coordinator / Retrofit Assessor / Domestic Energy Assessor but because of the director payment restriction its retrofit work has been limited to retrofit plans for village and church halls, and using its small annual financial surplus to pay for cavity wall insulation for a village hall one year; and funding a the air-to-air heating for a church hall the next.
- Brighton Energy Co-op, which had a retained surplus in 2024 of £73,000, employs its own team of specialists, including a Retrofit Co-ordinator /Level 4 Non-Domestic Energy Assessor and operations and new projects managers, though primarily undertakes only solar PV projects
What therefore must change to get community organisations engaged big time in retrofit and make a real difference to their communities’ energy efficiency, housing quality and health?
The government should fund community-led fabric retrofit with grants to help meet building decarbonisation and fuel poverty reduction targets
The logic for this is straightforward:
- It has to be fabric-led to help alleviate fuel poverty
- Community organisations do not on their own generate sufficient funds for achieving results at scale
- If funded, community organisations can employ retrofit assessors, coordinators and architects to identify households’ requirements and oversee design and delivery in accordance with PAS2035
- Loans don’t work for fabric retrofit.
These points are explained below.
Retrofit has to be fabric led to help alleviate fuel poverty
Many of those in fuel poverty live in substandard, cramped accommodation and are often tenants not homeowners. Those in cramped accommodation typically can’t afford solar panels and have only limited roof space per family, so can’t generate enough to meet their needs. And for tenants, it is the landlords that make the decisions on solar and often, the landlord that receives the value of solar exports, not the tenant. Solar panels are therefore not a sufficient answer. And with current electricity prices exceeding gas by a ratio of around 5:1, even a highly efficient heat pump without solar PV or a battery would make the occupants’ running costs go up, not down. So heat pumps alone on today’s tariffs tend not to cut the mustard either[1]. Only fabric measures reduce heat demand and the home’s peak heat transfer coefficient in the January freeze.
[1] Octopus’s “Cosy” heat pump tariff may be an exception, with 3 x 2 hour cheap periods of electricity per day. But the occupant has to be able to schedule the “heating on” times to fit these slots – intermittent heat and cold not steady heat – and minimising the achieved heat pump efficiency. It needs battery storage really to make it workable.
Community organisations do not on their own generate sufficient funds for achieving results at scale
A net zero retrofit costs £50,000 upwards, depending on home size. Getting a home from EPC rating D or E to EPC C costs less – £10,000 to £40,000 but still leaves the householder with significant bills. Community organisations typically don’t generate enough surplus to fund many or any of these types of intervention: here are the latest annual accounting surpluses (or deficits) for a sample of CBSs:
HKD Energy: