Do We Know How Residents Really View Retrofit?

As we face the challenge (and opportunity) of decarbonising homes, perhaps it’s time we looked up from the grant bids, project plans and carbon targets, and asked a more human question: what do customers really want and need from their homes? For many, it's not kilowatt-hours or carbon metrics, it's a warm, dry home free from damp, lower bills at the end of the month, and a space that supports their health and wellbeing. If we want retrofit to resonate, we need to shift the conversation from systems to lived experience. Not just outcomes, but benefits-led communication. I’m talking about how it feels to live in a warmer, healthier, more affordable home. That starts with listening more deeply to the people who live with the impact of our work every day.

Our customers live with the consequences - of both action and inaction. At the heart of retrofit is a simple truth: we’re doing this because we believe it will make people’s lives better. So why wouldn’t we involve them in shaping the solution? Every flat, house, and apartment isn’t just a unit, it’s someone’s home. A place full of meaning, memories, and emotion. What happens within those four walls matters deeply. If we become too focused on hitting targets, we risk missing what really counts: creating homes that work for the people living in them. Solutions that bring comfort, reduce stress, improve health and ease pressure on the household budget. That’s what true customer focus looks like.

As a sector, we’re facing the enormous task of decarbonising thousands of homes and no one underestimates how challenging that is for housing providers. The sheer volume is a real pressure point. To deliver at scale, there will inevitably need to be some level of standardisation in the physical solutions we apply. But if we want to remain truly customer-centric, we must keep peoples’ individual needs, concerns, and priorities front and centre.

Retrofit may be a technical process in many ways, but it’s time we reframed it as a people-first solution. One that results in homes that are cheaper to run, warmer and more comfortable to live in, healthier for families and yes, better for the planet too. It’s these outcomes, health, wellbeing, and money in people’s pockets that could become the most powerful drivers of change.

If we want retrofit to succeed, we need to create demand for it. People have to want it to see and feel the benefits of living in a home that supports their wellbeing and financial stability. That makes the way we engage more important than ever.

Despite now being years into the retrofit journey, with plenty of experience under our belts, we’re still having growing conversations against a tough backdrop. The topic of net zero is starting to divide opinion, drifting into culture war territory. Some commentators have gone as far as saying it’s becoming as polarising as Brexit (sorry to bring that up!) - uncomfortable, but nevertheless important to acknowledge. Political consensus, carefully built over decades, is beginning to fragment. The current party leading in the polls has dismissed it as “net stupid zero” and pledged to scrap both the target and the investment that supports it, if elected.

We also can’t ignore the noise. There’s a growing wave of misinformation in the media and online, questioning the performance of low-carbon technologies, from heat pumps to electric vehicles. Add to that the narrative that rising energy bills are the price of subsidising net zero, and it’s no wonder public trust is starting to fray.

Whether or not these claims stand up to scrutiny, the real issue is this: who do customers trust to give them the facts? And are we one of those trusted voices? That’s why our conversations with customers and our ability to really listen to them, matter more than ever.

It’s simple. To get people interested in decarbonisation, and ultimately committed to it, we need to speak their language.

That means keeping it human, relatable, ‘simple but significant’. Yes, technical detail and data have a place but not in the opening gambit. Most people aren’t asking how a system works. They just want to know: Will my home be warmer? Will it cost less to heat? Will it be better for my family? That’s the story we need to tell - one of tangible, positive change. Especially when stories are up 22x more memorable than facts alone!

But we can’t tell the right story until we have real insight into what matters most to them. What are their key drivers? For one customer, success might mean lower energy bills. For another, a home that feels healthier and free from damp. Someone else might take pride in helping reduce emissions. I dare say a few, if any, will say that a better EPC rating was their goal.

Ultimately, the success of retrofit won’t be defined by the technology we install; it will be defined by the trust we build. And that trust hinges on how well we communicate. If our messages don’t land, our solutions won’t either.

Winning hearts and minds isn’t a ‘nice to have’ - it’s mission critical. No matter how innovative the systems or how ambitious the targets, if people don’t understand the change, believe in the benefits, or feel heard in the process, we will fall short.

Great communication isn’t about simplifying the technical, it’s about amplifying the human. It means connecting retrofit to the things that really matter to people: comfort, health, pride in their home, money saved, stress reduced.

And if we don’t know what our customers genuinely care about, if we’re not actively listening, how can we ever hope to deliver solutions that truly work for their home, their life, and everyone’s future?