Levenshulme Area-Based Retrofit Scheme

Carbon Co-op are leading this innovative place-based pilot, aiming to bring opportunities for retrofit into communities on a tenure-blind basis, by addressing some of the barriers and challenges currently facing households.

Acting as an intermediary, Carbon Coop have aggregated retrofit professionals and partnered with a social enterprise training/contractor on behalf of participating households, engaging local people through participatory community liaison. They are facilitated a blended finance package, mixing grant and zero percent municipal lending tailored to householder circumstances.

This webinar brings together a panel of key players from the scheme to explore their experience of the process to date, now that works are on site.

NB: all the households in the current scheme are owner occupied, but place based approaches involving public and private tenants are equally applicable.

Who should attend?

This event is suitable for anyone with an interest in place-based or area-based approaches to retrofit delivery. This might include:

• Local authorities
• Community Energy organisations
• Housing providers
• Local and national government policy makers
• Think tanks
• Housing campaign groups
• Financial providers
• Retrofit professionals and providers

Chair and Panel members

Chair

Jennifer Brennan, Director – Harlow Consulting

Jennifer is a co-founder of Harlow Consulting, specialising in construction and built environment research and evaluation. She works with clients including CITB, Historic Environment Scotland, Home Builders Federation and Historic England. She has recently led a Skills Needs Analysis for Historic England assessing skills needs, gaps and shortages for construction, repair and maintenance of pre-1919 buildings, including skills and qualifications needed for retrofit.

Panel members

Jonathan Atkinson, Co-founder – Carbon Co-op

Jonathan is a co-founder of Carbon Co-op, a board member and staff member, developing and project managing innovative, new low carbon projects. He is the Retrofit Lead at the organisation, overseeing a wide range of energy efficiency projects. Jonathan’s earlier career included time at two research co-ops and in 2002 he co-founded UHC Collective, a multidisciplinary art and design project. He splits his time with People Powered Retrofit where he is Business Director.

Aneaka Kellay, Citizen and Community Engagement Lead – Carbon Co-op

Aneaka works in the Retrofit Team and Energy Commons Team at Carbon Co-op. She is experienced in workshop development, facilitation and community engagement. She is passionate about social and environmental justice. Over the last 9 years, she has worked to engage and organise training for householders and contractors around retrofit. Her current area of interest is in people-centred approaches to energy-efficient schemes.

Michael Dickinson, Director – B4Box Ltd

B4Box are an award-winning construction training provider and employer who work differently. Their unique integrated business model puts local learners and skilled employees at the heart of all business decisions, shaped and informed by their core values: tackling poverty, addressing climate change, promoting social justice and addressing inequalities. B4Box won the Ashden Award for Low Carbon Skills in 2022.

Hannah Dixon, Director, Architect, Certified Passivhaus Designer, AECB Certifier – Progress in Practice

Hannah is a chartered Architect and Certified Passivhaus Designer, specialising in sustainable, low carbon construction and community engagement. She has a wide range of experience working on Passivhaus and low energy schemes, as both Project Architect and Passivhaus Consultant.

Julie Maxwell, Architect and Retrofit Coordinator – Progress in Practice

Julie is a qualified architect who moved to the UK in 2015. She has a wealth of experience delivering divers residential projects from deep whole house retrofits to high performance new builds in Sheffield Yorkshire and the wider region. She is passionate about community engagement, making retrofit accessible to all and creating high-quality and sustainable designs.