Today we release the impact report, which marks the formal close of our two year funded Energy Redress project Retrofit For All: Enabling people-centred approaches in publicly funded retrofit schemes. It follows the publication of several outputs, which are the culmination of research and a service design process looking at barriers and enablers to people-centred social housing retrofit.
We would like to extend a huge thanks to everyone that has contributed to this project. From our dedicated Advisory Board members, to everyone who has attended a workshop or meeting, participated in research, responded to our emails, provided feedback or shared the reports and resources.
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About the report
This report is for us, our funder, and also the sector. This encompasses the retrofit and registered housing sectors—including housing associations, local authorities, and professional contractors—as well as those working in social and participatory research.
The report sets out:
- What we achieved through project activities:
- Research
- Service design
- Tenant-facing resources
- Registered Provider-facing resources
- Policy and wider sector engagement
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- From outputs to outcomes:
- Working with tenants
- Working with Registered Providers
- Working with policymakers
- Outcomes for Carbon Co-op
- Reflections on monitoring and evaluation
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Participant stories and feedback
“[A key learning moment for me was] that when we’re talking about ‘people-centred’ we’re also talking about approaches which don’t prioritise just getting the project done – it’s about the whole system working to prioritise people. That includes procurement, the funding structures, and the way delivery happens. Respect and culture are a massive part of that – and I think my ‘Aha’ was writing up the research findings in February and trying to articulate what qualities ‘people-centred’ retrofit has.”
– Carbon Co-op staff member
“Great to know and see the depth, planning, and care that has gone into tenant engagement. Awareness of this approach fits into my own belief of where the sector needs to move.”
– An attendee at the launch of our resources as part of a webinar hosted with the Northern Housing Consortium.
“To feel part of a team, no ‘us vs them’. Everyone was of equal importance.“
“[My] confidence has been backed up by this work…never let them get away with poor practice.“
.– Tenant participants
“This brought to life the case study description of RLOs as ‘local celebrities’ in the community, with bonds formed during the retrofit work enduring over time. It made me reflect on how important pre-works engagement is for tenants: when a strong relationship is established beforehand, tenants are far more likely to trust in the process. Experiencing this directly made it much clearer why Broadacres’ dropout rates were so low.”
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Find out more
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Where next?
Retrofit for All was an ambitious project in scope. The overarching objectives attempt to tackle some of the most important, structural, systemic and stubborn issues around housing quality, retrofit and householder experience. Nested under this were outcomes for multiple audiences – from tenants (at a household level) right through to policymakers at a national level.
Just as this project is not considered ‘complete’, in the sense that we intend for the work to continue, we know that our monitoring and evaluation will not finish either. We will continue to seek and gather feedback, to ensure that resources, tools and services can be iteratively improved, adapted or pivoted as required by stakeholders.
We welcome feedback – get in touch!
info@carbon.coop
Visit the project web page to find all our resources and reports