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The Sustainable Homes and Buildings Coalition’s Latest Outcomes Report

Published: 11-10-2023

The Sustainable Homes and Buildings Coalition, made up of Worcester Bosch, NatWest, British Gas and Citizens Advice has upgraded nine properties across the UK in the Home Improvement Pilot. By studying the rollout of home improvement upgrades on a case-by-case basis, the Coalition has uncovered important lessons and insights on the process of upgrading a property’s efficiency.

The coalition is a cross-sector coalition seeking a fair green buildings transition in the United Kingdom, ensuring both environmental and social outcomes are considered. The Hom Improvement Pilot builds on the past two years, where the Coalition set out to move the conversation around energy efficiency into the media/news agenda. The Coalition maintains that consumers must always be at the heart of the conversation, as it is real people and their families, that will have to undergo a disruptive, albeit ultimately beneficial, home improvement process.

The three main findings from the pilot include:

1. Whilst a home improvement process does involve disruption, consumers feel the process is immediately worth the effort, although cost remains the main upfront barrier
2. Each consumer’s journey will be different, and due to the variety in the UK’s housing stock, some will require bespoke solutions
3. Planning restrictions can make home improvement projects complicated and local councils also need to raise their awareness of home improvement measures

The results of the pilot, and the lessons learned, come as the Coalition releases its third major report, Home is Where the Heat Is: Outcomes Report, which was unveiled in the Houses of Parliament – at an event attended by over 100 industry, political, and third-sector stakeholders.

There are also clear growth opportunities for UK businesses to develop a substantial supply chain for the sector, which policymakers and businesses must now consider carefully. It is also clear that action on energy efficiency is critical to improving the UK’s energy security, reducing the amount of energy needed to power UK homes, as well as reducing the pressures consumers feel on their energy bills.

The results of the pilot shed light on some of the main challenges facing a national rollout of energy efficiency measures, which encompass:

1. The supply chain, which needs to be developed further
2. The importance of improving social housing across the UK, not only to reduce energy costs, but also to stimulate scale in the market
3. The need to address the private rented sector, where tenants are often not in control of improving the energy efficiency of their properties.

The nine homes shared a funding pot of £250,000, provided by Worcester Bosch, NatWest, British Gas and Citizens Advice. In return for having the home upgrades funded for them, the households agreed to share their experience of the process, with their thoughts and comments detailed in the Report.

Over the coming year, the Coalition will carefully monitor the impacts of the home improvements to determine the exact benefits to each household, analysing how much consumers can expect to save on their bills, as well as looking at reductions in carbon emissions and how comfortable each household is – the Coalition will report on these in 2024.

 Our CEO Carl Arntzen, said: “Following more than a year of working tirelessly to upgrade nine properties, we fear that the supply chain is not yet equipped to deliver a nationwide energy efficiency upgrade campaign. We need more action to stimulate demand, which will help overcome many of the barriers we encountered in our Home Improvement Pilot. There is still time to make this the decade of delivery, but we need to act now.”