Towards a national standard for Resident Liaison Officer roles in social housing retrofit

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Large-scale social housing retrofit is central to tackling fuel poverty and meeting carbon targets. Yet delivery is often undermined by weak and inconsistent resident support. Where communication is inconsistent or support is under-resourced, programmes face refusals, delays, complaints, and misunderstood and improperly used systems. Evidence from the Retrofit for All research shows that this is … Read more

‘Building Community Power’ report released

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Released today, this report, commissioned by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), explores how the city region can meet its clean energy ambitions through collaboration with community energy. It was produced by Carbon Co-op and Regen, with contributions from a wide range of industry stakeholders and policymakers.   The Local Power Plan (2026) and launch … Read more

New Toolkit for Social Housing: Tenant Recruitment

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Transforming retrofit starts with meaningful resident involvement—and our new tenant recruitment toolkit shows how to make that happen.Designed to help housing providers build effective, people-centred strategies, the toolkit draws on Lancaster West’s pioneering tenant recruitment model—an approach that has built trust, improved services, and delivered retrofit success. It makes the case for recruiting tenants into … Read more

Talking heat decarbonisation and flexibility with housing professionals

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Authored by Dr Rowena Hay and Sabina Dewfield from Shortwork, with support from Helen at Carbon Co-op. Towards the end of our Project Heat Pump (Socialising Flexibility) project, we brought together a cross-sector professional workshop online, facilitated collaboratively by Shortwork and Carbon Co-op. The session brought together 17 participants, including the wider Carbon Co-op team, … Read more

Bringing the People to Project Heat Pump

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People engaging with activity sheets as part of a participatory workshop.

Authored by Dr Rowena Hay and Sabina Dewfield from Shortwork, with support from Helen at Carbon Co-op. Project Heat Pump (Socialising Flexibility) was a two-year programme funded by Energy Redress and delivered by Carbon Co-op in partnership with Shortwork and Manchester City Council. The project explores how heat pumps are working in practice for social … Read more

Celebrating the end of the Innovate UK: Calderdale Retrofit Challenge project

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We recently completed the Calderdale Retrofit Challenge project! Funded by Innovate UK over a period of two years. This project was an initiative undertaken by Calderdale Council, Carbon Coop, and Todmorden Learning Centre and Community Hub (TLCCH). The Calderdale Retrofit Challenge project aimed to better understand the significant challenge of decarbonising Calderdale’s housing stock, particularly … Read more