Place-Based Retrofit examines how retrofit can be designed and delivered at local and regional scales rather than through in-flexible top-down programmes and isolated, property-by-property upgrades.
Homes do not sit in isolation. They are part of streets, estates, infrastructure networks, and local economies. Housing stock, tenure mix, and social conditions vary significantly across the UK. A single, centrally designed model cannot respond effectively to that diversity.
This project explores how coordinated local strategy can align housing condition, funding, infrastructure, and community priorities. It looks at how retrofit can move beyond compliance with technical standards and become part of a broader approach to strengthening place.
This project started in September 2025 and the first phase is due to complete in June 2026.
National retrofit policy is often framed around performance targets and funding programmes. While these mechanisms provide structure, they can overlook the complexity of local context.
The work responds to growing recognition, reflected in the Warm Homes Plan and wider devolution agenda, that local leadership and neighbourhood coordination are essential to delivering retrofit at scale.
Neighbourhoods and regions differ in housing type, tenure patterns, supply chain capacity, and institutional leadership. The needs and resources of communities and their members are also variable. Without coordination, retrofit risks becoming fragmented, reactive, and short term.
Place-Based Retrofit was established to examine what effective place-based retrofit strategy-making and delivery requires. It asks how local leadership can enable partnerships, collaboration, a deep understanding of place and meaningful community involvement, to reduce duplication, build confidence, and unlock sustained progress.
The project draws on surveys, workshops, research, case studies, and structured engagement with organisations already delivering place-based work.
It examines governance arrangements, partnership models, funding alignment, and local supply chain development.
The work also explores how a place-based approach can manage system complexity. By looking at retrofit through the lens of place, the project considers how wider benefits such as health improvement, resilience, and economic opportunity can be realised in ways that are locally relevant.
Learning is informed by demonstrators and community initiatives, alongside engagement with local authorities, housing providers, and practitioners working at neighbourhood scale.
