November Refurb and Retrofit Magazine

Industry Insider
Taken to task
Affinity Sutton's Alex Willey, Head of Asset Sustainability at Affinity Sutton, was recently appointed to chair the UK-GBC's
Regeneration and Retrofit Task Group. R&R asks Alex about the group’s aims.
“Having been involved
in a number of
large-scale retrofit
programmes I’ve seen
first-hand the positive
regenerative impact
they can have when
conceived and
delivered holistically...”
Alex Willey
When was the task group formed?
In September the UK Green Building Council
(UK-GBC) formed the Regeneration and
Retrofit task group to make the link between
area regeneration and retrofit and show how
energy efficient buildings can be a cornerstone
for regeneration projects.
This work is a direct consequence of the UK-
GBC City Summit in Birmingham in February
2016, where we brought together local
authority representatives, the private sector,
third sector and academia in a series of
structured ‘breakthrough innovation’
workshops. The workshops found that whole
house retrofit solutions can help to improve
both homes and communities, so energy
efficiency could be used as the catalyst to drive
a major regeneration project for an estate.
What is the aim of the group?
We will be focusing initially on homes and how
the benefits created by investing in retrofit are
highly complementary to many of the
objectives of regeneration; from improving
health and wellbeing, reducing running costs
and providing aesthetic overhauls, to
generating employment and encouraging
communities that are sustainable in the longterm.
With the government’s Estate Regeneration
Programme and the Heseltine Review this is an
important time to flag that demolition alone is
not always the solution to regenerating estates.
That is not to dismiss demolition and rebuild as
a key part of the process but to ensure that
retrofit is considered alongside this. Equally
fuel poverty is not going away and ensuring
homes are warm and affordable remains a
critical issue.
The intention is to collate evidence to
demonstrate the strong business case for
considering retrofit within regeneration which
can feed into both central and local
government plans, highlighting innovative
models that local authorities can use to design,
fund and deliver these projects.
One of the final outputs from the group will be
a coherent vision for retrofit-led regeneration
projects. This will set out the principles which
should be considered in planning and
delivering area regeneration programmes to
ensure they deliver the multiple benefits of
lower carbon emissions, reduced energy bills,
improved health and wellbeing, new
employment opportunities, and stronger local
communities.
Why did you get involved?
Having been involved in a number of largescale
retrofit programmes I’ve seen first-hand
the positive regenerative impact they can have
when conceived and delivered holistically. For
example, a project we carried out in Leicester a
few years ago included employment and
training opportunities for our residents,
incorporated biodiversity alongside the retrofit
measures and also dealt with estate layout
issues around parking and paving. Retrofit
drove the project but its outcomes reached far
wider than reduced bills and improved energy
performance.
So I was thrilled to be invited to chair this
important group and am looking forward to
presenting the results in spring next year,
especially as a key task for the group is to
ensure that any outcomes feed directly into
practice by working with local authorities to
test some of the models we identify.
Who else is involved?
The task group represents a broad spectrum of
the built environment sector from contractors
to product manufacturers, energy suppliers,
architects, project originators and a local
authority.
What’s happening when?
The intention is to publish our findings as a
report in March 2017. Following the report
launch, we intend to host a series of events,
workshops and site visits to encourage the
development of real projects and programmes.
With a strong case for action, we hope to
facilitate partnerships between local authorities
and the industry to realise the vision of using
high quality retrofit to drive area regeneration.
The intention would be to try and help cities to
move beyond individual pilot projects towards
ambitious area-based approaches which
could form the basis of city-wide retrofit
programmes.
www.affinitysutton.com
www.ukgbc.org
14 Refurb retrofit
magazine
Nov 2016 R2