Building local skills for housing retrofit in Newham

Newham Council is putting its groundbreaking Just Transition Plan into action by refurbishing 359 homes to improve comfort and energy efficiency. With funding secured towards the works from the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3 Grant, the Council is now focused on maximising local skills and job opportunities linked to housing retrofit, as part of its wider housing upgrade programme.

As participants in Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living Programme, Newham Council asked the Carbon Trust to take a closer look at the types and numbers of jobs that will be needed to retrofit their homes and reach their Just Transition Plan targets. Here we summarise the findings.

The scale of the retrofit challenge in Newham

The Council estimates that retrofitting their 17,000 social homes and 7,000 leasehold properties will cost around £800 million. The works will involve upgrading walls, roofs, floors and windows before installing low-carbon heating and solar panels. They are aiming for their homes to have an average Energy Performance Certificate rating of B by 2030 and to be Net Zero by 2050. This means that there is a huge amount of work to do in the next five years and beyond. The questions for Newham, and for countless councils and housing providers around the country, are: Who is going to do all this work? Do we have the right skills and enough people within our Council and in our community? If not, how can we build local skills and create good quality jobs?

Calculating retrofit jobs

Analysis by Cotality estimates that Newham Council will need 236 skilled tradespeople every year for 25 years to undertake all the necessary work on its housing stock. Specialists in installing insulation and renewable heat will be most in demand, followed by general builders. They will also need skilled plasterers and renderers, carpenters, heating engineers, electricians, window fitters and retrofit coordinators.

The analysis focused on the key trades needed to undertake the works set out in the Council’s housing stock assessment. Other research, by London South Bank University and the National Retrofit Hub, has identified over 100 different roles in the wider retrofit ‘ecosystem’ – including designers, planning officers, project managers, resident liaison officers, finance specialists, materials suppliers, scaffolders and many more.

Estimating the local skills gap

Pinning down accurate data on existing skills across specific trades at borough level is not easy. Many tradespeople are self-employed and unregistered. Where specialist companies are registered in Newham, it is often unclear how many people they employ across the various trades and whether their employees live in Newham or commute from elsewhere.

A review of registration schemes for insulation and renewable heat installers suggested that the current local supply is tiny – just one renewable heat specialist and eight insulation specialists are registered in Newham. There are, however, already four locally registered retrofit coordinators, in line with the Council’s current needs.

This study focused on the jobs associated only with retrofitting council-owned homes in Newham. Upgrading all other homes and buildings in Newham to get to Net Zero is an even greater opportunity – and challenge – for the local workforce.

Building council capacity

For a local authority, delivering retrofit at scale requires the right mix of internal capacity and external expertise. At Newham, the Head of Green Economy and Head of Retrofit are key roles based within the Inclusive Economy and Housing Department and Climate Action teams. Currently, responsibility for different aspects of the retrofit process is dispersed across multiple departments, including resident engagement, capital investment, repairs and maintenance, finance and procurement. Successful delivery will require formalised governance structures for retrofit delivery,effective coordination across departments, adequate resourcing, upskilling existing staff and recruiting new specialist roles.

Closing the skills gap

The Carbon Trust’s report for Newham Council included suggestions for closing the local skills gap and pointed to existing resources and guidance, such as the government funded RISE website (Retrofit information, support and expertise). Next steps for Newham to consider include:

• Focusing on internal governance: creating a cross-departmental retrofit task force, defining their contractual delivery model, training staff and recruiting.
• Reforming procurement practices: using frameworks and collaborative procurement, embedding social value clauses in retrofit works contracts to require local employment and apprenticeships.
• Growing external partnerships: collaborating with the local Build East Centre and the London Mayor’s Skills Academies to expand retrofit training.
• Community outreach: creating and delivering inclusive and accessible communications campaigns, promoting retrofit careers in schools and job centres.
• Supporting SMEs: offering grants for accreditation, creating matchmaking services for consortium bids, signposting local businesses to existing training and funding.

Clarity, collaboration and inclusion will be key principles for Newham Council as it embarks on its first major retrofit programme and builds local skills along the way.

The research conducted by Carbon Trust helps us make the case to develop our retrofit workforce internally and increase green skills provision in the borough. The report has highlighted the need to work collaboratively, ensuring we use our procurement process and develop the local supply chain so that we can turn retrofit into a source of well-paid, secure and inclusive jobs for our residents. This way, we can accelerate progress towards net zero, reducing emissions from our housing stock while ensuring we deliver a just transition in Newham.

Talia Berriman, Head of Green Economy at Newham Council