Challenge of Retrofitting Historic Homes

The Architects Journal (AJ) today reported that the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, has announced the results of a ‘wide-ranging review’ into the challenges of retrofitting historic homes.

This is something we have some experience with, having worked on numerous retrofits of period properties, including a large Edwardian villa retrofitted to the AECB Retrofit Standard and a Grade 2 Listed lodge which is aiming for the EnerPHit standard. The process does indeed include barriers and any effort to reduce or remove these is welcome in our view.

Edwardian Manor House during AECB Retrofit works

EPC ratings are apparently going to be reformed to make them accurate, reliable and trustworthy. One of our projects, a whole-house retrofit with Passivhaus levels of insulation on the extension and an airtightness below 2.0ACH, has just had an EPC done and achieved a D rating, so I cannot agree more that EPC ratings are none of the above. Currently, they are quite frankly a joke.

The removal of separate Listed Building Consents (alongside planning applications) would be welcome and would remove an additional layer of administration that should not be necessary. What needs to be tied into this, is the education of people working within planning departments. It is essential that the carbon impact of measures is understood and can therefore be afforded appropriate weighting by both Conservation Officers and Planning Officers. I have been in the situation where I have advised an officer that a request they were making would lead to a 32% increase in the space heating demand of a Passivhaus scheme. Their response? “We cannot consider this minor reduction in energy efficiency…”

Grade II Listed EnerPHit Project

This isn’t Planner-bashing. It’s a tough gig, as the turnover of Planning Officers demonstrates, but this only makes training and an understanding of the Planning Authority’s role in tackling the climate emergency more critical.

When asked by the AJ for comment, I couldn’t help but point out that there are plenty of lower hanging fruit which we are already failing to address. Planning reform should not be limited to the complex, beautiful, historic buildings. Do ‘ordinary’ people in ‘ordinary’ homes not deserve to have warm, mould-free homes that are affordable to run?

A formerly ‘ordinary’ home retrofitted to the AECB Level 2 Retrofit standard.