Resident Engagement: The Retrofit Make-or-Break
9th October 2025
Matt Chenery
Early, Meaningful Engagement is No Longer Optional
Resident engagement in retrofit is not just a “nice to have”. It is the difference between delivering projects successfully and handing grant money back to government. That was the clear message from Claire Brown, Senior Consultant at Turner & Townsend, and one of CITB’s 2024 most influential women in construction allies.
“I think it’s really about appreciating that we’re human,” says Brown. “Anyone in a home should have that level of respect and understanding. They will have stresses in their life that might mean they don’t have the capacity to think about what on earth a heat pump is.”
Her point is starkly illustrated by a growing trend: housing providers unable to spend Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) or Warm Homes Grant allocations, not because the need isn’t there, but because they cannot secure resident consent in time.
Why Access and Trust Matter More Than Ever
Funded programmes require organisations to hit delivery targets often thousands of homes within fixed deadlines. Without resident buy-in, refusals and no-access cases quickly erode those targets. Each missed property is a missed opportunity for better insulation, improved heating controls, or healthier indoor air.
The barrier is rarely the technical work. It’s more often everyday realities that derail engagement: where a contractor parks, how long scaffolding blocks light, or concerns about strangers entering the home. In some communities, mistrust of organisations runs deep.
Brown points to the growing use of pilot projects where residents can see and hear from peers what installation really involves. “That’s been a powerful shift compared to a letter through the door saying: we’ll do this on this date, hope you’re in,” she notes.
Lessons from Beyond Housing
Brown’s own career has spanned housing, construction, research and the public sector including a stint as an energy manager for a large police force. With over 200 diverse buildings to decarbonise, she quickly learned that carbon statistics alone didn’t motivate action.
“I stopped talking about carbon dioxide and started talking about what mattered to them,” she recalls. Turning 10% energy savings into the equivalent of “240 stab vests” or “feeding the mounted branch” meant people connected with the impact.
The lesson for housing? Speak the language of the resident. For some, “reducing your bills” is the hook. For others, it’s “feeling warmer” or “improving the walls” rather than “installing insulation”.
Balancing Timelines with Genuine Engagement
Engagement takes time and time is often what delivery teams feel they don’t have. But Brown argues that starting early, ideally six to twelve months before installation, smooths delivery rather than slowing it.
“It’s about things being done with you rather than to you,” she says. “If you’ve set expectations, talked through the plan, even when things go wrong you’ve smoothed those points of conflict.”
This approach extends beyond installation to handover and post-installation support checking after the first heating season whether residents can use new controls and whether they feel warmer.
Turner & Townsend’s Resident Engagement Toolkit link maps this as a full customer journey: from initial awareness-raising, through design input, installation, and follow-up.
The Cost of Getting it Wrong
Inadequate engagement has financial, reputational, and policy consequences. Missed targets can mean returning millions in unused SHDF or Warm Homes Grant funding, slowing the national push towards net zero.
At the same time, poor engagement undermines the trust needed for future projects. In a sector already grappling with skills shortages particularly in heat pump engineering maximising every funded opportunity is critical.
For Brown, it comes down to tailoring the approach. A row of bungalows with elderly residents might need one-to-one home visits. A multi-generational estate may benefit from community events with trusted local champions.
A Call for Sector-Wide Shift
The Healthy Homes Hub has long argued that retrofit is as much a people project as a technical one. Brown’s reflections echo that. Success depends on embedding engagement into the DNA of delivery, not bolting it on at the end.
If the sector is serious about decarbonising at scale while improving resident health, the mindset must shift from projects done to residents to projects done with residents.
“If we truly want retrofit to succeed at scale, we need to stop doing projects to people and start doing them with people.” – Claire Brown
Practical steps for housing providers
Start engagement now – Even before funding bids, raise awareness of retrofit in plain language.
Tailor the message – Frame benefits in ways that matter locally: warmer homes, lower bills, safer environments.
Show, don’t just tell – Use pilots, resident case studies, and peer advocates to build trust.
Plan for the whole journey – Map touchpoints from early awareness to post-installation support.
Invest in trust – Be honest about disruption, timeframes, and what residents can expect day-to-day.
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