91% of the homes that we will have in 2043 are already built. So to meet South Yorkshire’s commitments to become a net-zero carbon emitter by 2040, their energy efficiency needs to be addressed.
According to the South Yorkshire Housing Framework published in 2023 “nearly two thirds of South Yorkshire’s homes are below national standards for energy efficiency.” A third of our region’s carbon emissions come from our housing stock so meeting net-zero goals requires major collective effort to invest in and improve our homes.
That’s where retrofit comes in. Housing retrofit is the application of measures to current housing stock that increase their energy efficiency and reduce overall carbon emissions. The result is not only lower carbon emissions for the region, but improved indoor living conditions for residents and a housing stock that is better prepared to meet the demands and needs of future generations of inhabitants.
A Wicked Problem
Housing retrofit is a wicked problem - one that is difficult to tackle because of its complex and interconnected nature. When it comes to retrofit there are lots of challenges which soon become entangled. What is the best way to retrofit a property? What type of retrofit measures will work best for different properties? What properties should be retrofitted first, those that deliver highest carbon savings or those in which residents are most affected by fuel poverty? How do we train enough people and source enough materials to successfully retrofit the region’s homes? How do we fund retrofit at scale?
Retrofitting our housing stock requires political will and coordinated action if we are to meet net-zero targets but doing so will bring benefits to our society with improved health and wellbeing, for the environment with decreased emissions and for the economy with opportunities for local business to develop the skills to implement change for the region.
Planning for Action
The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is committed to taking action in this important area. The South Yorkshire Housing Framework aims to ensure that “everyone has access to good quality, warm homes that are affordable and meet needs, whilst helping achieve our ambitions for a net zero economy and sustainable, attractive places to live, work and invest.”
Our regional local authorities and housing associations are leading on the largest scale retrofit programmes and are providing upgrades to the social housing sector. Through devolved powers from central government, SYMCA is likely to have increasing responsibility to provide support for retrofit.
To prepare for this, Ceri Batchelder, part of SYMCA’s Sustainability Team, is leading the South Yorkshire Retrofit Development Programme. She is investigating how the region can build capacity and capability to deliver successful retrofit outcomes in South Yorkshire through setting up a number of demonstrator projects to guide future strategy.
A key component of this is the Housing Retrofit Steering Group that directs Ceri’s activities. The group brings together a diverse set of stakeholders, including Local Authorities, housing associations and researchers from the SYSC, to help inform what the SYMCA should do.
More than anything, the group is a working example of how collaboration is essential to solving complex, ‘wicked’ sustainability problems. It brings a wide range of people and expertise together to collectively tackle the issues and leverage the opportunities presented by a regional retrofit programme. The SYSC is delighted to play a part in the group with attendees from across the centre’s work streams to provide as much support as possible.
“Retrofit is full of boundaries to work across with a diverse range of people, professions and sectors. It’s important that we break down silos and work together to tackle retrofit in South Yorkshire.”
Wider Collaboration
Workshops hosted by the SYMCA on the topic of retrofit have brought together a diverse range of stakeholders working in the area. From policy officials to architects and from builders to landlords, retrofit is a hot topic of discussion and one where there is plenty of willingness to understand the challenge and work together to make real progress.
There is also an increasing level of community activity, as demonstrated by the Doughnut Retrofit Group, which emerged from a Festival of Debate event on Doughnut Economics, and SY Ecofit, a new community interest company focused on retrofit.
Leading Innovation
Innovation is key to developing the pathways we need to decarbonise the residential housing sector. Through innovation we can learn what is needed to make improvements and provide recommendations to local authorities, landlords and homeowners alike, not just to reduce emissions and make houses more efficient, but to improve standards of living for South Yorkshire residents.
The SYMCA Let Zero project has been awarded £2.4m in funding. This innovative new project will support tenants in the private rented sector by working with landlords to improve decision making on improvements in their properties, especially those housing the vulnerable. It will also contribute to supply chain innovation, testing how retrofit can be done more effectively and efficiently. As part of this SYSC colleagues at Sheffield Hallam University will be assessing how best to support tenants living in fuel poverty and the governance arrangements for a “one stop shop” for landlords.
Understanding and planning how the region can retrofit its homes at scale is something that the SYSC is also working on. Our project looks at how the delivery of regional retrofit programmes will tackle the different property archetypes that the region has and the carbon savings associated with them.
