Council endorses retrofit strategy for Hertfordshire

The Hertfordshire Local Retrofit Strategy sets out a three-year, structured and actionable roadmap for accelerating energy efficiency upgrades, such as installing insulation, double-glazing, draught proofing, heat pumps and solar panels, to existing homes across the county to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

These improvements also bring benefits to homeowners, including energy bill savings and more health and comfortable living conditions, cleaner air, energy security, and local economic growth.

Twenty percent of the UK emissions are of a result of energy use in our homes and 80% of the homes that will exist by 2050 have already been built. This means retrofitting existing homes to reduce emissions is essential to meet the district council's and national climate targets.

The Local Area Retrofit Accelerator (LARA) project used expertise from across Hertfordshire to help create the Retrofit Strategy through workshops, producing a key mission to ‘collaborate in Hertfordshire to retrofit all homes in need, so that we enhance our environment and climate resilience, address fuel poverty, improve health and support local jobs’.

Cllr Jon Tankard, the council’s Lead Member for Climate Change and Sustainability, said: “We are very pleased to endorse this Retrofit Strategy for Hertfordshire. The council has done so much to improve the warmth and health of cold and draughty homes in our district over the past few years amid cost-of-living challenges and rising energy costs.

“Over the last four years, our officers and partners have worked, and continue to work, very hard to deliver grant-funded energy efficiency improvements to local homes. More than 400 homes in the district have benefited from these upgrades and that number continues to grow.

“Most recently, we partnered with Thrive Homes to upgrade 114 houses with external wall insulation and ventilation under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund project, which is estimated to have saved each household approximately £585 per year on their energy bills and reduced polluting emissions by a total of 145 tonnes per year.

“We are excited to boost our action on retrofit and maximise all the economic, health, and environmental benefits that retrofit brings by enhancing our collaboration with other local authorities and key industry sectors through a coordinated Retrofit Partnership.”

Click here to view the strategy.