Without fundamental changes to improve the skills gap and reduce worker shortages, the retrofit sector is in serious danger of not fulfilling its important role in helping achieve net zero heating and building targets by 2050 through energy-efficiency upgrades to approximately 27m homes, warns Stephen Tracey, chair of the National Home Decarbonisation Group’s Green Skills Working Group and divisional manager for net zero carbon retrofit at Wates Group
There is no doubt that skills and workforce capacity are ongoing challenges within the construction sector, but much of this conversation is too vague and not applied to specific subsectors – such as retrofit.
The NHDG’s Retrofit Workforce Roadmap offers a clear and ambitious plan of action for creating a skilled and resilient workforce.
At the heart of this plan is a requirement for 250,000 new workers by 2028, consisting of insulation and low carbon heating installers through to retrofit professionals with skills in project management and technical design.
Two years into this four-year plan, though, it’s unclear how much progress has been made. Workforce planning to deliver low carbon and secure energy is behind where it needs to be, if a recent report from the House of Commons Energy Security & Net Zero Committee is anything to go by.
The report found that the government will only meet its clean energy 2030 or 2050 decarbonised building targets if there is significant new intervention in the UK workforce.
The Climate Change Committee also estimates that net employment gains to support the energy transition will mean between 135,000 and 725,000 jobs in the next four years. Despite this projection taking more than just retrofit into account, it does help to highlight the scale of growth required and possible competition between sectors for labour.
Putting retrofit at the top of the skills agenda
The opportunity to influence and increase the number of people starting new careers in retrofit is something on which we cannot fall short. Considering the significant ongoing investment from the government and private sector, there has never been a better time to ensure that marketing campaigns accurately reflect why retrofit work is so important for vulnerable people who live in homes which are cold, damp and draughty.
As we start another year where the scale of decarbonisation delivery will increase and more lives will be improved, we must tap into the conscientious nature of Gen Z jobseekers and position retrofit as a career for life that makes a real, tangible difference – which is the reality.
Rather than maintaining the perception that retrofit careers are restricted to installer roles, we must make it clearer that it’s a subsector that is accessible to everyone and requires different skillsets – from the people skills required to be a tenant liaison officer through to the technical skills required by a retrofit designer.
At the heart of the issue is a lack of understanding. Many learners – and even many course providers – still don’t have a clear picture of what a retrofit career looks like. This needs to change.
Retrofit is not just about installing insulation or upgrading heating systems. It’s a broad and diverse sector that spans everything from low-carbon technologies to data-driven building assessments. It has space for both A-level school leavers and experienced professionals with transferable skills. And it’s not going anywhere. But the qualified trainers of today must also play their role in educating the next generation before it’s too late.
The NHDG’s Retrofit Workforce Roadmap offers some solutions to this problem, however, it’s also the wider private sector’s responsibility to find more solutions, build connections and enable growth.
What to expect from the next 12 months
Without collaboration and collective agreement on the desired direction, it’s difficult to predict how much progress will be made in 2026. The government has its own plan, and different organisations have shared their own suggestions on new initiatives, many of which I’m sure could be successful – but only if they’re delivered at scale.
If the recommendations in the NHDG’s Retrofit Workforce Roadmap are successfully implemented, I’m confident that the estimated 250,000 skilled workers required within the sector will become a more achievable target.
All I can say with certainty is that the retrofit industry represents businesses that are driven by decarbonisation that puts customers and their properties at the heart of everything they do. Retrofit isn’t a construction side project that will disappear as soon as we hit energy and net zero targets. It’s a national priority – and it’s time our skills strategy treated it like one.
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