Getting ready for Warm Homes Wave 3

Read the signs from government and back your team to get going now

Avoid being overcautious when it comes to initial mobilisation costs and resourcing. Delivery time will be tight – and the more project preparation that is done now the better.

Organisations that are too risk averse could create major delivery issues, wearing teams thin before the hard work starts.

Setting teams up now to plan for a fantastically successful, streamlined roll out of Wave 3 will pay dividends over the coming months as you get ahead of the curve.

Government gave two clear indications for funding confidence in their funding guidance:

1.  Confirmation that costs can be claimed as legitimate match funding since September 2024

2. Confirmation that all compliant bids will get funding (though perhaps scaled back due to high demand)

So plan for at least 50% of the money you requested and start to mobilise based on this. Even if grant allocations are lower than planned, you should have confirmed budgets ready to go. (caveat this assumes you submitted a compliant bid!).

Pass confidence onto your supply chain

If you already have contractors appointed that’s great – make sure they are setting up their mobilisation plans and help underwrite this work.

Offer assurances (i.e. payment!) for preparatory work and don’t load your contractors with risk. They also need to staff up their teams, and protect their cashflows. Get surveys and other planning works commissioned.

Build team relationships with these suppliers. Invest in lessons learned exercises, assess skills gaps and encourage training & development where needed.

Where you haven’t procured yet, assign dedicated resources to this urgently.

Be open with your potential supply chain about your plans. Guage their interest and get their input on what kind of tenders they’d like to see. What can you learn from previous tender exercises? How can you make your tender easy and clear to price?

The worst procurement approach would be to wait for grant to be confirmed, then to publish a tender to a cold market.

2025 will be a seller’s market, and suppliers may well ‘no bid’ opportunities that come late or look poorly thought through. Some procurements will surely fail this year – don’t let that be yours.

Map and engage your key stakeholders

Many will be nervous about sharing plans before you have a funding offer in ink from the government – but this is exactly the right time to engage.

It is so much better for affected stakeholders to hear about plans as they develop, rather than being surprised by announcements when they are confirmed.

So identify who might be affected or interested in your programme of works – depending on the size this could range from resident groups to local authority(ies), charities, internal maintenance and investment teams.

You might not be ready to raise expectations with specific households, but make sure you’ve started to understand resident concerns in the areas where you expect to work.

Resident engagement can be one of the hardest parts of retrofit. Understanding and trust is key – this requires supporting infrastructure and isn’t easily built when timeframes are short and compliance is king.

Formalise simple but clear governance structures

Good programme and project delivery requires clear, simple governance structure. This is all too often forgotten or left till later in the process.

As we embark on multi-year, multi million £ programmes, teams need to have clear decision making protocols, escalation routes and mutual expectations on communication. Strong collaborations are founded on clear and shared expectations. From the beginning.

This is particularly important for consortia. Set out your management principles and invest in a culture of collaboration now. Governance doesn’t have to be complicated, but should include a written agreement on mutual standards of professionalism and respect.

You’ll of course need a named project manager – but they should be backed and supported by a named – and present - ‘project/programme director.’ Don’t forget the importance of personal relationships – swap phone numbers and encourage their use.

Map known risks and opportunities – and plan for them now

There should be few ‘unknown unknowns’ in retrofit these days: EWI projects will be delayed by planning and bad weather. Procurement will overrun. Costs will go up. Some residents will be hard to engage. Poorly commissioned heat pumps won’t perform; BT boxes will get in the way.

Map these risks now and plan for them with improved focus, engagement and up-front resource.

Think about how you can use this wave to drive longer term innovation. Consider financing mechanisms and area based approaches being pioneered by the likes of Sero and Living Places.

Summary

Good project delivery starts with strong relationships, appropriately sized teams and clear, thorough planning. Risks need to be assessed and appropriately shared between government, clients and supply chain.

The knock on impacts of getting this wrong are widespread – from training and skills, to installation quality and resident engagement. Conversely if we get it right, retrofit can drive numerous benefits, addressing fuel poverty, creating local jobs and tackling climate change.

For everyone involved we need Warm Homes Wave 3 to be the best retrofit project to date. Lets start now. 

Jamie Abbott is founding Director of Climate Programme Partners, providing independent consultancy support on programme set up and delivery. He was formerly UK Housing Sector Sustainability Lead for Turner & Townsend and was the primary architect, Programme Director and later Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the DESNZ funded RISE programme.