Next week, the latest in a series of regional retrofit conferences opens. The Low Carbon Homes online event, hosted by Cosy Homes Oxfordshire, will focus on the key barrier for increasing the uptake of home retrofit – the supply chain.
Low Carbon Homes Oxfordshire, (Tuesday 9th – Thursday 10th March), supported by MCS is staged over three mornings, and includes both speaker sessions and interactive work groups to generate ideas to overcome the supply chain barrier.
Cosy Homes Oxfordshire, as a pilot home retrofit service, has operated for almost two years. During that time, the biggest barrier to scaling up retrofit has always been finding enough trusted and high-quality contractors to deliver home retrofit projects in Oxfordshire – be that installers, manufacturers, electricians, or anyone else in the supply chain.
The recent national retrofit strategy consultation document ‘Greening Our Existing Homes’ published by the Construction Leadership Council indicates that around 500,000 new professionals and tradespeople are needed to tackle this challenge.
“Since the launch of our whole house retrofit service two years ago we haven’t struggled to find homeowners who are keen to retrofit their home. Instead, our main barrier has been finding trusted local building contractors to deliver the work. It’s clear that we need to build up the supply chain for retrofit in Oxfordshire to meet homeowner demand and climate targets.
We need training opportunities to bring new people into the building sector, from apprenticeships to train up the young, to re-skilling programmes to enable those who are unemployed to find work in the retrofit sector (supporting the green recovery from Covid-19 at the same time). There’s also room for innovation and entrepreneurship, bringing new ideas to the plate. That’s why we’ve chosen to host this event in collaboration with Low Carbon Homes, and we’re excited to see the conversations and ideas that come from it.” Tabitha Whiting, Cosy Homes Oxfordshire.
Low Carbon Homes on 09-11 March, hosted by Cosy Homes Oxfordshire, is a free-to-attend online event bringing professionals from inter-related sectors together to collaborate and consider the scale of the supply chain challenge, the solutions available and the barriers to overcome.
After Oxfordshire, Low Carbon Homes will be staging further events across the UK. Next is Solent, hosted by Green Tech South, University of Portsmouth.
Oxfordshire event
- Free tickets for representatives from across Oxfordshire and the wider region
- The online event takes place across three mornings – 09, 10, 11 March (0830-1200hrs)
- Delegates can view all or selected sessions and meet with other delegates, speakers and sponsors
- Group work sessions will be staged each day to facilitate thought development among delegates
- Registration for the Oxfordshire event closes at 4pm, Monday 8th March
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