Foreword
This note outlines discussions had at the first West Midlands Greener Together Forum on the 28th of June 2022, where the topic discussed was regional retrofit projects. The Forum brought together speakers involved in tackling retrofit from different perspectives, but all with the goal of improving energy efficiency in the region’s homes. The WM2041 Five Year Plan has outlined the scale of this challenge: 292,000 homes need to be retrofitted by 2026 to stay on course for achieving net zero by 2041. The speakers were:
George Simms, SMART Hub Lead, Energy Capital
Leads on establishing a cross directorate Hub to support the development of a Sustainable Market for Affordable Retrofit Technologies (SMART) across the West Midlands and delivering domestic retrofit solutions.
Phil Beardmore, Environmental Leader, Energy Confidence
Phil supports organisations and householders with energy advice and support to decarbonise businesses. Phil offers whole-house energy advise packages and supports Faith centres to decarbonise their places of worship.
Rachel Jones, Chief Executive, Act on Energy
Encourage energy conservation by providing free and impartial advice for householders and small businesses across the West Midlands. They have been addressing Fuel Poverty and Climate Change for over 20 years supporting households through their energy journey.
Immy Kaur, Co-founder and Director, Civic Square
Work closely with neighbourhoods to experiment and test building resilient, regenerative neighbourhoods. They co-design and co-build spaces at the heart of communities for them to meet, connect and work together to address issues, such as retrofitting their homes.
The following notes reflect the discussions had within the plenary session and questions which followed each speakers’ presentations.