Green Retrofitting and Property Decarbonisation Conference

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – Lord Callanan, Minister for Business, Energy and Corporate Responsibility

Lord Callanan has been a major champion of the efforts to drive decarbonisation and retrofitting of our homes and buildings and as a minister has been working to support businesses, social housing providers and the wider population in this work. He will provide a call to arms to open the event, and discuss government support including the £3.8 billion social housing decarbonisation fund.

Sanctuary Group – Donna Williams, Director – Sustainability and Climate Change

Sanctuary Group are part of the Greener Futures Partnership is a unique collaboration of five of the UK’s largest not-for-profit social housing providers: Abri, Anchor Hanover Group, Home Group, the Hyde Group and Sanctuary Group, which share the core objective of creating sustainable tenancies, homes and communities and own or manage 300,000 homes between them. The partnership have pledged to work together and share resources in the push to retrofit and improve energy efficiency of their homes, and collaborate in the procurement of resources to achieve their sustainability goals. Donna will discuss the partnership, and Sanctuary Group’s work to retrofit their own 100,000 homes.

Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy – Matt Harrison, Project Director, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has established the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator to kick start the decarbonisation of social housing through 2021 and beyond, and support green jobs as part of the COVID-19 economic recovery plan. They are offering an initial £60m to the sector, following a demonstrator fund which allowed 2,000 of the worst performing homes to be retrofitted. BEIS is planning to release funding in three year ‘waves’, with each wave being worth £1bn and the end goal of bringing each of the UK’s 5.5 million social homes up to standard.

Greater South East Energy Hub – Maxine Narburgh, Regional Hub Manager

The Greater South East Energy Hub is a collaboration of eleven Local Enterprise Partnerships. They are working together to increase the number, scale and quality of energy and retrofitting projects being delivered across the South East. They are looking to engage with the built environment supply chain on their projects and could have close to £1bn of projects over the next five years.

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council – Cllr Johnny Thalassites, Lead Member for Planning, Place and Environment

Properties within Kensington and Chelsea are placing green retrofit of their residential properties at the height of their priorities. As part of this event, Cllr Thalassites will talk delegates through their decarbonisation strategy, timeline for specific projects and how the supply chain can play a part in expediting schemes.

Thirteen Group – Samantha Granger, Head of Environmental Sustainability

Ranging from the North Yorkshire to North Tyneside Thirteen Group are developing thousands of homes and face the mammoth task of retrofitting 34,000 more. With major supply chain shortages and a plethora of work to get through, Samantha joins the event to outline the size of the task facing her team and ask for help from the supply chain.ment partners.

UKRI – Sam Stacey, Challenge Director, Transforming Construction

UKRI is taking the lead in the UK’s retrofitting and decarbonisation drive and is responsible for distributing significant funding to enable decarbonisation projects. £171 million was recently awarded to 9 industrial retrofitting and decarbonisation projects, with this investment set to be matched by another £250 million from industry. Projects to be funded include schemes to capture and store CO2 that was previously emitted from manufacturing and industrial plants in Scotland, Teesside and on the Humber Estuary.

Welsh Government – Sarah Laing Gibbens, Head of Decarbonisation & Standards

Sarah Laing Gibbens is Head of Housing Decarbonisation and Standards for the Welsh Government.  Wales was the first nation on earth to declare a climate change emergency in April 2019, and continues to position itself at the forefront of work to help us live in low carbon ways that are good for people and good for the planet.

Sarah is responsible for setting both new build standards and retrofit standards for Wales – both of which are currently more demanding social housing standards than elsewhere in the UK.  As head of commercial performance, Sarah led Wales Innovative housing programme, investing £145m into new energy efficient and low carbon approaches to housebuilding, and £10m into Welsh MMC factories to support achieving Wales’ net zero carbon ambitions by 2050.

Sarah is currently leading Wales’ social housing decarbonisation retrofit programme, with £70m invested in the last 12 months to support social landlords make a start of decarbing homes, before expanding the work into the private rented and owner occupier sectors.

Places for People – Derek Watters, Head of Environmental Sustainability

Places for People have one of the biggest retrofitting programs to undertake, given that they manage over 195,000 homes and 125 leisure facilities across the UK. They have set the objective of reaching net-zero carbon emissions for all their existing stock by 2040, 10 years ahead of the governments deadline. Derek will discuss the challenge ahead, and their plan for improving their UK wide portfolio including information for how to get involved.

London Borough of Enfield – Joanne Drew, Director of Housing & Regeneration

London Borough of Enfield is at the forefront of net zero efforts and will be a carbon neutral organisation by 2030, with Enfield following as a carbon neutral borough by 2040. They are moving forward there first retrofitting projects as part of this effort, with two pilot projects worth over £15m set to be onsite by November. Enfield are lead borough alongside Waltham Forest on the London housing retrofit strategy as part of London Councils Climate change agenda and Joanne is Co-Chair of the London Housing Directors Network and a leading voice for retrofitting in the capital.

Greater London Authority – James Hardy, Head of Energy

The Greater London Authority are taking the lead in tackling the climate emergency, alleviated fuel poverty and creating green jobs and recently secured £160 million in government funding for retrofitting projects, with money to be made available for homes, workplaces and other buildings. The Mayor of London is also leading on a new ‘Innovation Partnership’ which could be worth up to £10 billion over the next decade and will enable social landlords and building firms to upgrade ageing buildings. The partnership will see at least half the funding spent in the London and the creation of up to 150,000 jobs.

Raven Housing Trust – Jo Hills, Director of Assets and Services

Raven Housing Trust are a housing association with homes across Surrey and West Sussex and have been one of the most proactive in moving towards net-zero emission for their housing stock. They are planning to move forward with an ambitious retrofitting programme for their 7,000 homes and have estimated the entire project will cost £118 million. Jo will discuss how they are adopting a minimum heat demand approach and how they are looking to work with partners to move forward with this important work.

London Borough of Waltham Forest – Darren Welsh, Deputy Strategic Director – Resident Services

London Borough of Waltham Forest are the lead borough alongside Enfield on London Councils’ ‘Retrofit London’ Strategy which has called for an additional £115 million this calendar year to move forward with retrofit projects across the capital. Darren will discuss these projects and how councils across the capital are already funding 375 ‘shovel ready’ retrofit projects costing £950 million.

Devonshires – Hannah Langford, Partner

Hannah works closely with Registered Providers on development projects, with a particular focus on planning, regeneration, and merger due diligence. She specialises in development and regeneration schemes including site assembly, joint ventures, section 106 acquisitions, and regeneration projects. One of her key strengths lies in her understanding of client’s governance and regulatory obligations.

Hannah is also a Board Member for Golding Homes and a member of the sub-committees for Development and Social Value.

Schneider Electric – Nico Van Der Merwe, Vice President Home & Distribution

Nico has worked at Schneider Electric for over 12 years, taking up the role of Vice President of Home & Distribution UK&I in 2019. Throughout the years, Nico has been in charge of Schneider Electric’s channel development for Europe, playing a vital role in formulating and leading strategic transformational projects.

Nico is currently responsible for ensuring that Schneider Electric’s portfolio of smart devices, sensors and energy management solutions are front of mind with electricians, home builders and contractors.  With homes becoming increasingly connected and the spotlight on the inefficiencies of UK housing stock becoming a great focus in the battle to halt climate change, Nico believes that smart technologies such as Wiser will have a large role to play in creating truly connected and efficient homes.

With electrical demand in the residential space growing, Nico believes that Schneider Electric has the technology and relevant channels in place to bring these solutions from grid to plug.

National Home Improvement Council – Anna Thompson, Non-Executive Director

The National Home Improvement Council was launched in 1975 and is the umbrella organisation for the refurbishment, maintenance and home improvement sector in the UK. It works across its wide ranging membership, the wider industry and government to works towards improving the nation’s housing stock. Anna is a non-executive director with the NHIC as well as Head of Engagement at the Local Authority Building Control and will call for the need for a joined up national retrofit strategy and for help creating the skills needed for the retrofitting task ahead.

Peabody – Richard Ellis, Director of Sustainability

Richard is Director of Sustainability at Peabody, one of the largest not-for-profit housing associations in the UK. Following a merger with Catalyst Housing in April 2022, the new Peabody Group has responsibility for 104,000 homes, with around 220,000 residents and 20,000 people who benefit from care and support services throughout London and the Home Counties.

Peabody’s community foundation invests around £11m per year, working in partnership to help people flourish in local areas. The Group is committed to sustainable principles, mitigating the impacts of climate change, and driving social value for the benefit of residents and colleagues. It reports annually on its environmental, social and governance performance.

The Green Finance Institute – Emma Harvey, Programme Director

The Green Finance Institute is an independent, commercially focused organisation, supported by HM Treasury, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the City of London Corporation. As the UK’s principal forum for public and private sector collaboration in green finance, it is uniquely placed to accelerate the domestic and global transition to a zero-carbon and climate-resilient economy through mobilising capital. The institute established the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings to develop the market for financing a net-zero carbon and climate-resilient built environment in the UK, by catalysing and financing the widescale retrofitting of residential buildings.

Energy Saving Trust – Jack Wilkinson-Dix, Policy Officer

As the UK’s most prominent charitable organisation that is working to address the climate emergency, the Energy Saving Trust have launched a campaign to support registered providers and housebuilders in tackling the green energy challenge. As part of this event, Jack will provide a policy overview on how consumers and developers can work together to reduce carbon footprint within homes, supporting homeowners and tenants to adopt renewable energy sources and fitting their houses with energy efficient products.

Orbit Homes – Jeanette Hodges, Head of Carbon & Operations

Orbit Homes are one of the largest housing groups in the country and the UK’s leading developer of new homes for affordable and social rent, with a growing property portfolio of over 45,000 homes spanning the Midlands, east and south. Over the next 10 years they aim to build 20,000 homes of which 65% will be affordable. We build homes across all tenures and are a market leader in the delivery of shared ownership.

They have identified a three stage process that will need to be carried out across their housing stock as they work towards net zero. This will involve fabric improvements, replacement of fossil fuel powered heating systems and the introduction of renewable technologies. Jeanette will discuss the significant investment which is being put into this process and how she is working to create a long-term roadmap for the business to help tackle its own carbon footprint.

Turner & Townsend – Richard McWilliams, Director, Sustainability

Richard is a Director in Turner & Townsend, responsible for leading our sustainability agenda. Richard and his teams, provide support for clients’ in responding to the challenges of climate emergency, net zero and the green recovery – both for existing and new-build assets in real estate and infrastructure sectors. Having previously led the delivery of a truly game changing Mayor of London & ERDF co-funded programme to demonstrate and scale-up the industrialisation of self-funding, ultra-low carbon domestic retrofit, Richard is working with partners Energiesprong & Carbon Trust to extend the range of solutions to address the breadth of London’s housing stock and beyond. Industrialised domestic retrofit will change the lives for many, many people for the better and drive a green recovery, for which he is delighted to be spearheading.

Turner & Townsend is an independent professional services company specialising in programme management, project management, cost and commercial management and advisory across the real estate, infrastructure and natural resources sectors. With 111 offices in 45 countries, we draw on our extensive global and industry experience to manage risk while maximising value and performance during the construction and operation of our clients’ assets.

NSR Management – Sophie Wharton, Business Development Manager

Sophie joined NSR Management Ltd in 2018.

She had developed and sold her own company, and was looking for her next challenge.  Known for having a tireless work ethic and a passion to drive businesses forward, Sophie was immediately evaluating procedures and process to see how she could increase productivity sales levels even during her interview. She continues to manage change projects internally and externally, together with managing marketing and media, she is always striving for efficiency and growth.

Devonshires – James Grinstead, Solicitor

James specialises in commercial litigation and construction dispute resolution and has experience in acting for many groups within the construction industry, including developers, contractors, sub-contractors, lenders, housing associations and also some private clients.

Nesta – Madeleine Gabriel, Mission Director, A Sustainable Future

Madeleine leads Nesta’s mission to create A Sustainable Future, which focuses on decarbonisation and economic recovery. Her team is setting up innovation projects and partnerships exploring how to reduce carbon emissions from homes and, in the wake of COVID-19, how to boost productivity and help people find good work. She previously led Nesta’s work on inclusive innovation, researching ways to create an equitable, innovation-led economy in the UK. She has published widely on innovation practices that promote sustainability and social impact.