Optimised retrofit, opportunity knocks
The first in a series of events about Optimised Retrofit hosted and promoted by CEWales set out the benefits and opportunities for Welsh construction
On Tuesday 26th January Constructing Excellence in Wales hosted the first of a programme of events, Construction Opportunity Knocks: Optimised Retrofit, geared towards introducing and explaining Optimised Retrofit, what it is, what the opportunities are and what the benefits will be for the whole Welsh built environment supply chain.
There were over 150 people on the Teams call and there were a lot of questions and interaction. The audience heard the strong support of the Welsh Government from Julie James MS Minister for Housing & Local Government but probably the two best sections of the session were from Colin King and Wyn Prichard. They stressed that the potential for the programme to improve the quality of lives is enormous and that the goals will set a template for future retrofit work across the UK, not just in Wales.
We thoroughly recommend listening to the session if you missed it. You can use the links below to access the session and the slides. The video link is via WeTransfer and needs about eight minutes to download.
Presentations:
It’s worth re-capping on some key facts about the Optimised Retrofit programme. Optimised Retrofit – which is a consortium of 68 partners including 26 social landlords – supported by the Welsh Government’s Innovative Housing Programme, will initially retrofit around 1,370 homes across Wales as part of the evidencing and refinement of a different, better and more thorough approach to decarbonising homes. It represents a huge opportunity for the construction industry supply chain in Wales to learn how to make Welsh homes energy efficient and improve the lives of future generations. It also is a massive opportunity to be part of the programme beyond 1,300 or 300,000 homes and use new skills, tools, technologies and develop a proposition to upgrade the remaining 1.4 million homes that follow.
Those skills and learning covers training for surveyors assessing the homes through to SMEs understanding that retrofit is not just a refurbishment process using external wall insultation of clever technology. It is about learning the right processes and skills to ensure all of the homes in Wales – 1.4 million of them – are not just energy efficient, but improved so that the work Welsh builders deliver enhances the lives of Welsh people.