Turner & Townsend has won a deal with the Greater London Authority to act as the technical lead for a new national retrofit centre of excellence.
The centre aims to accelerate energy efficiency projects for social housing within England.
Social housing providers will be able to access the centre of excellence to gain technical support and guidance on how to retrofit aging and energy inefficient housing stock.
The programme, part of the GLA’s efforts to meet its target to make London net zero by 2030, is being delivered by the Mayor of London, backed by £3.5m from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
The launch of the new centre of excellence has been timed to allow registered providers to develop their plans to scale-up housing retrofit schemes ahead of the next round of the £160m Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
It comes as part of a package of measures being led by the GLA to accelerate investment and industry capability around.
Turner & Townsend has also formed an innovation partnership with the Mayor of London to create an expert body of supply chain partners to support housing providers with their retrofit projects.
The new programmes follow the Mayor’s Retrofit Accelerator schemes for homes and for workplaces, which Turner & Townsend leads with support from the Carbon Trust, Energiesprong UK and Ramboll.
Richard McWilliams, director of sustainability at Turner & Townsend said: “These new measures demonstrate the success we have seen to-date in shaping a capable, comprehensive retrofit industry in the UK.
“The Mayor’s programmes in London are playing their intended role – as a catalyst for the creation of expertise that can support a nationwide revolution in how we retrofit homes that are ultra low-carbon and efficient to run.
“With the backing of the GLA and BEIS, both the new centre of excellence and Innovation Partnership will establish high standards for comprehensive, whole-house retrofit. Through coordinated investment on this scale, we have the ability to build a world-leading industry that will make a significant contribution to net zero objectives, and create opportunities for new green jobs both at home and abroad.”
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Any news which aids the roll out of retrofit nationally is welcome, given the huge numbers of social homes – estimated as over 4 million – requiring energy efficient measures to reduce carbon emissions if we are to achieve net zero by 2050.
Privately owned homes and non domestic properties need a similar framework though as these are the majority of buildings needing retrofit energy efficiency interventions.