Overcoming the systemic challenges of retrofitting residential buildings in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Policy initiatives in the UK, such as the Green Deal, have sought and failed to achieve the mass uptake of comprehensive residential retrofit. This chapter argues that previous policies have failed to address four interrelated challenges that constrain consumer demand. Thus, we focus on solutions to address these challenges from three key perspectives: business models, finance mechanisms and intermediaries. We first identify the systemic challenges for whole house retrofit and argue that a more comprehensive and wide-reaching policy strategy will be needed to overcome these challenges. This will require consistent and ambitious policy targets, and the creation or support of new finance mechanisms, business models and dedicated intermediary actors to support policy implementation.