“Retrofit works best when it’s part of the asset story, not a separate chapter.“

Looking back on our retrofit journey at Halton Housing, the biggest change hasn’t been technology or funding — it’s been how our thinking has evolved with experience.

Our early environmental work, largely driven by Energy Company Obligation (ECO) funding, delivered real improvements: warmer homes, improved building envelopes through fabric, and lower energy demand. At the time, it was the right delivery approach and the right thing to do for customers.

What we didn’t fully appreciate then was the importance of accurately recorded, reusable data metrics. Homes performed better, but we didn’t always capture the evidence behind the performance, such as U-values (a way of measuring how much heat passes through a building material), material choices and characteristics. That gap in technical data only really revealed itself later.

When Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) arrived, like many in the sector, we initially focused on aligning homes with funding criteria. Wave 1 enabled some genuinely excellent outcomes, including some of our best-performing homes, with very low running costs and clear Net Zero potential. Those schemes improved lives, and I remain incredibly proud of them.

But experience brings perspective.

In some cases, retrofit decisions weren’t fully aligned with asset lifecycles, and components with remaining life were replaced earlier than ideal as we could not assume their energy characteristics in Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) modelling. The outcomes were strong, but the long-term value for the business could have been sharper.

That learning shaped everything that followed.

By Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) Wave 2, our approach matured. We started with evidence and intelligence, not eligibility:

• known data gaps
• assumptions of poor performance
• insights from repairs, condition surveys and customer feedback

Retrofit became a tool not just to improve homes, but to strengthen asset data and investment confidence. Environmental and asset planning stopped being separate conversations and started working as one.

Today, retrofit at Halton Housing is business as usual, delivered through established teams, trusted contractors and strong customer relationships. Environmental investment and asset investment are no longer competing priorities; they are aligned around the same goals: value for money, healthy homes and long-term financial resilience.

In a world where standards and targets keep moving, we’ve chosen not to chase the minimum but to aim high, informed by data, experience and learning.

I know that retrofit works best when it’s part of the asset story, not a separate chapter.

Five key takeaways from our journey:

• Good delivery matters and good data sustains it
• Funding should support strategy, not define it
• Experience sharpens decision-making
• Integration beats isolation every time
• Aim beyond today’s targets to future-proof homes

I’m proud of how far Halton Housing has come, and proud to have grown alongside the organisation as our approach has matured.

If you’d like to know more, or even just catch up over a coffee, please do reach out. One of the biggest things I’ve learned along the way is that none of us are doing this in isolation. We may be working in different organisations, but we’re all navigating the same challenges together.