What are the potential implications of these findings for the wider sector?
This report has thus far focused on the potential benefits of adopting a measurement-based approach to retrofitting homes in the context of a small pilot portfolio within a single housing association. This section considers how the findings of this pilot project might play out if applied across the wider social housing sector and beyond. It also touches on the potential benefits of using such monitoring-based platforms more broadly than within the scope defined for the pilot.
In this video, Michael Craggs, Development and Asset Management Innovation Lead at Bromford Flagship discusses the practical benefits of a data-led approach, from improving customer services to informing smarter decisions across the housing sector.
Accelerating transition to net zero – deploying technology to enable a measurement-based approach to retrofit offers a pathway to accelerate the transition to net zero across social housing. Given that buildings are the second-largest source of GHG emissions in the UK, retrofitting our housing stock effectively and efficiently is key to achieving wider net zero goals.
Balancing environmental benefits against social and economic factors – the technology used in this pilot project enables retrofit simulations to be guided by different priorities (e.g. EPC compliance, carbon reduction, bill savings). The environmental benefits achieved will therefore vary depending on which priority is chosen. Clearly, it is a strength that this technology enables such flexibility, though it also highlights the unavoidable trade-offs that housing associations must manage in balancing environmental, social and economic objectives.
Very likely
Somewhat likely
Unlikely
Not sure
Health and wellbeing effects – at the social housing sector level, embedding data-driven methods into retrofit programmes offers the potential to target properties most in need and identify interventions that will be most effective in tackling home comfort issues, promoting health and wellbeing for residents. This is an area that requires further research in the context of measured data approaches to retrofit, though it clearly has the potential to not only strengthen the social value case for investment but also to support wider public policy goals by reducing pressure on health services. In 2023, it was estimated that there were between 120,000 and 160,000 social homes in England that had 'notable' levels of damp and mould.28 Adopting a measured approach to retrofit could help to identify and remedy homes with these issues (as well as identifying any homes that may otherwise have been missed), while also enabling housing associations to ensure compliance with Awaab's Law.
Targeted tackling of fuel poverty – integrating measured data into retrofit design offers a pathway to more efficient use of resources and more effective targeting of fuel poverty. By directing investment to interventions that both raise energy performance and reduce household energy costs, the sector could accelerate progress towards national fuel poverty reduction targets. With 6.1 million households in the UK estimated to be in fuel poverty, this is a key issue which must be addressed.
Promoting effective home management – wider adoption of monitoring technology could provide residents with real-time feedback on how their homes are performing. This information could encourage positive behavioural change in terms of how homes are managed, enabling residents to manage their homes in a way that both supports a healthier living environment and maximises the thermal efficiency of their homes.
Reducing retrofit programme and compliance costs – there are potentially substantial cost-savings to be realised through more effective targeting and scoping of required retrofit works through measured data. These have the potential to be applied sector-wide across social housing, and could also extend to the wider residential market as well as commercial real estate. Housing associations often operate under capital constraints, so approaches that improve efficiency can help to optimise resources and potentially redirect funding toward other priorities, such as developing additional housing.
Implications for disposal programmes – by demonstrating the potential to lower retrofit costs at the property level, wider adoption of measured approaches could help reduce the need for housing associations to dispose of older homes to other providers or the private sector – effectively outsourcing rather than addressing the problem. Where homes were previously considered unviable for retrofit, adopting a measured approach may demonstrate that such homes can achieve the required levels of energy efficiency at a lower cost. Where this is the case, this may help to prevent the sell off of social homes at a time when there are substantial levels of underlying need.
Financing – there is the potential for Lloyds (and other funders) to double down on existing finance structures such as Sustainability-Linked Loans, green loans and transition finance as well as to create new financing options leveraging this type of technology.
Long-term stock condition analysis – the findings generated through this pilot project demonstrate there is potential value for housing associations through the integration of this type of technology into long-term stock condition monitoring and analysis. Providing granular property-level data clearly provides improved insight into the overall condition of a portfolio and offers a potential route to more effective long-term asset management.
Enhancing collective knowledge – using this approach, improvements in the process to decarbonise the UK's social housing stock can be achieved incrementally. The data-led approach assessed within this pilot study demonstrates that improvements don't necessarily require substantial additional finance to achieve the stated ambitions, or even a detailed assessment of an entire housing portfolio before defining a plan of action. Rather, this project has demonstrated the value of a Bayesian-type, targeted approach to improving data quality over time, to enhance the sector's collective knowledge of the most effective routes to achieving retrofit goals.s
Improved understanding of true costs – there are substantial differences across the sector in the estimated costs required to retrofit the UK's existing housing stock, and the level of interventions that are required. This was evident even within the specific confines of this project, where significant differences were observed between the original planned retrofit programmes and the level of capital allocated between Bromford and Flagship (i.e. between properties originally in Bromford's portfolio vs those in Flagship's portfolio before they underwent a merger). If applied more widely across the sector, data-led approaches to retrofit have significant potential to contribute to enhanced transparency and understanding across the sector of the actual costs and level of interventions required to deliver retrofit.
s A Bayesian approach is a statistical method that updates beliefs about an unknown quantity (like a probability) by combining prior knowledge with new data using Bayes' theorem. Essentially, it's a way to synthesize existing knowledge with observed evidence to arrive at a refined understanding.
