Adoption of sustainable retrofit in UK social housing

Abstract

Purpose – The study was designed to assess the knowledge, adoption and perceived effectiveness of sustainable retrofit technologies within the UK social housing sector.Design/methodology/approach – The study was undertaken using a structured questionnaire that was completed by 130 providers of social housing.Findings – The study showed that social housing providers were evenly split in their reliance on internal or external information for sustainable retrofit knowledge. In terms of adoption identified that this was strongly driven by government‐funded programmes, leading to widespread adoption of low technology solutions. The respondents identified that many leading edge technologies were perceived to be less effective.Research limitations/implications – The study represents a snap‐shot of adoption and effectiveness issues, therefore does not show the trajectory of adoption which should be addressed in a follow‐up study.Practical implications – The social housing sector has been viewed as a market maker ...