Initiative aimed at social housing providers looking to bring stock up to scratch

Turner & Townsend has been appointed by the Greater London Authority (GLA) as the technical lead on a new national retrofit centre of excellence designed to accelerate energy efficiency projects for social housing.

The consultant will act as the lead partner on the programme, which is being delivered by mayor of London Sadiq Khan and is backed by £3.45m of funding from the business department.

Retrofit shutterstock

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The GLA-backed programme will help social housing providers retrofit their stock

Social housing providers will be able to access the centre of excellence later this summer to gain technical support and guidance on how to retrofit their aging and energy inefficient housing stock in a way that cuts carbon emissions, reduces heating bills and improves the life of residents.

The announcement 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.

The new centre of excellence comes as part of a package of measures being led by the GLA to accelerate investment and industry capability around retrofit as part of its drive to make London zero carbon by 2030.

An “innovation partnership” has also been set up to create an expert body of supply chain partners to support housing providers with their retrofit projects.

The UK-wide scheme, which has been designed and established with Turner & Townsend, has a potential value of £10bn in retrofit works of which at least £5bn is expected to be spent in London.