The Warm Wales Neath Port Talbot Scheme was a retrofitting of existing housing stock in Borough on a regional scale. It involved over £10 million worth of investment to install energy efficient measures to improve the energy efficiency in existing homes and reduce the number of households in fuel poverty across Neath Port Talbot. There were 49,831 properties involved in this scheme, accounting for 81% of the total housing stock of 61,698 properties.
The procedure of the scheme involved seven stages: firstly, two to eight weeks of marketing was carried out, including introduction letters, posters, advice booklet and marketing materials. This was followed by phone calls, published articles, local events and the creation of websites to make sure all householders received sufficient information. Second, surveys and assessment were made to find out whether the households were eligible for the free or discounted measures offer. Next, installation was followed up under the monitor of scheme operations manager to ensure that the performance level was achieved. After that, quality audits, including customer satisfaction audits, customer telephone audits, full technical audits and hearing and heating assessments were carried out. Further measures such as results review were carried out as the fifth stage. Then, a benefits advice service was provided to help residents to apply for further benefits. Additional works were offered, such as health professional training who could visit clients at home to identify people at risk of illness or death in relation to cold living conditions (Patterson 2008).
4.3.1.Retrofit Measures
The retrofit measures installed in the Neath Port Talbot Scheme consisted of: installing cavity wall insulation; installing loft insulation; installing hot water cylinder insulation jackets; installing central heating system involving new highly efficient gas boilers, radiators to all rooms, timers, room temperature controller and thermostatic radiator valves; installing external cladding for non-traditional constructions; and providing at least two compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to each householder (Patterson 2008).
4.3.2.Environmental Outcomes
In the Warm Wales Neath Port Talbot Scheme, the total CO2 emissions were reduced
from 196,824 tonnes per year to 178,641 tonnes per year, making for a savings of 18,183 tonnes per year, which accounted for 9.2% of emissions savings. The average SAP rating before retrofitting was 55, and after retrofitting, it increased to 60.
4.3.3.Social outcomes
The scheme created 54 new jobs and 127 training positions in Neath Port Talbot. In addition, 284 people were trained through the collaboration of Warm Wales and the Health through Warmth Scheme, including surveyors, social services staff, age concern, health visitors, physiotherapists, welfare rights units/benefits advice. 2305 families were removed from fuel poverty. Moreover, this project made some attempt to analyse the energy data together with a health programme called ‘npower Health Through Warmth scheme’ which provided training to the health professionals and encouraged them to find out the most in need house to be retrofitted.
In this scheme, the majority of households, 73%, were owner occupied. These properties resorted to npower funding, Warm Wales funding or the discount scheme depending upon their financial circumstances. 20% of the homes were owned by the local authority, which was involved in the scheme.
Owner occupied 73% Local authority rented 20% Private rented 3% Housing association 4%
Owner occupied Local authority rented Private rented Housing association
Figure 4.4 Tenure of households within the Warm Wales Neath Port Talbot Scheme (Patterson, 2008)
4.3.4.Economic Outcomes
The total investment in this scheme was £10,235,129. £732,734 was funded through the discount scheme. The further £290,050 was contributed by householders. The expenditure on different retrofit measures was shown in Table 4-4. On average, for each household, £543 was spent on substantial energy efficiency measures.
In addition, 3649 families received the offer of free benefits suggestion at the evaluation stage. 495 of which had made a wider range of benefits like Council Tax Benefit and Attendance Allowance, etc. and received an extra £4256 per year.
Table 4-4 Final expenditure on measures throughout the Scheme (Patterson, 2008)
Measure Expenditure
Cavity wall insulation £3,379,886
Loft insulation £3,144,987
Hot water tank jackets £29,318
Walkways - in loft space for safe access £81,160 Scaffolding - for cavity wall insulation £113,463 Central heating Local Authority, Health
through warmth £1,563,743
Mains gas extension projects £1,430,000
Partner Benefit in kind £500,000
Total £10,235,129
4.3.5.Supply Chain
In this scheme, four home insulation installation contractors and one heating installation contractor were contracted; and one of three major insulation manufacturers in the UK was based in South Wales.
4.3.6.Lessons Learned
As Retrofit 2 is still a large-scale retrofit project, the main focus is its retrofit method, implementation process and multiple benefits.
In terms of retrofit process, this project has illustrated important aspects throughout existing housing retrofitting, which is the survey and assessment at the early stage, audits and communications with residents during the whole process, and the follow- up works and advice services after retrofitting. These aspects ensured that all the stakeholders understood the scheme from the very beginning and participated in every procedure of the retrofitting.
In regards to retrofit method, this project illustrated a great analysis method of identifying the most in need households for retrofitting. The energy data can be analysed together with health or some financial data like income to find out the households most in need or in fuel poverty so they can be targeted as a priority of a retrofitting project.
In addition, the retrofitting of existing housing is not just about improving energy efficiency, but more importantly, improving the living environment and comfort of residents as well as social and economic improvements. Moreover, the evaluation of housing retrofitting performance is not just a comparison of numbers of energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emissions reductions. Evaluation should be made by
the actual effect of retrofitting from a longer-term and broader perspective. For example, in this case, more job opportunities were created locally, more training opportunities were provided for local residents and combining a retrofitting survey with health issues is worth learning and studying.