Working together to remove barriers, build trust and put residents at the heart of energy efficiency improvements

We recruited a tenant advisory group and a communications advisory group, with representatives from social housing providers, which have been instrumental in the development of the website. We also sought input from a wider group of tenants and people working in the sector through a ‘test and learn’ phase. A steering group, made up of a range of stakeholders including the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, has also offered guidance.

Collaboration between landlords and residents runs through the recommendations in the toolkit. Put simply, it’s about understanding residents’ individual circumstances and giving them a say about what happens in their home.

“We found that barriers vary depending on people’s circumstances. One-to-one discussions are essential to identify concerns and then address them”

The toolkit gives advice about how you can build engagement into your retrofit process with a step-by-step communication process, a guide to working with contractors, sections about resident ambassadors and demo homes and more. It also has practical resources you can download including letter templates, FAQs, case study videos, and a guide to using the right language.

We worked with the Behaviour Change Network to look at retrofit communication through a behaviour change lens. The behaviour we want to encourage is for residents to welcome energy efficiency work on their home. Energy efficiency work can cause significant disruption so it is understandable that some residents may be apprehensive or not want the work done at all.

The Behaviour Change Network facilitated focus groups with the advisory groups. The conclusion was that the best way to encourage residents to embrace retrofit, was to make things easier for them, by removing barriers.

Removing barriers and creating trust are very much about putting residents at the heart of your projects and this is a thread that runs through the advice. Using language that explains things simply and clearly, listening and responding to concerns and suggestions, and accounting for residents’ circumstances are all covered as part of the Heartwarming Homes advice.

During the ‘test and learn’, we asked residents to feed back on elements of the toolkit. What residents had to say was really positive:

“It takes away any sense of ‘them and us’, which people sometimes have at times of change. It allows opportunities for questions to be asked.”

“It makes you feel as though you and your home and health matter to your landlord and they are trying to help you reduce your bills to give you more money in your pocket.”

These residents feel as though they have been put at the heart of the process. I hope that Heartwarming Homes will contribute to thousands of residents experiencing the same.  

Heartwarming Homes looks at communication and engagement around energy efficiency improvements. However, with the current focus on improving the relationship between social landlords and tenants, I hope some of the learning from the project can be applied to other areas.

Kathy Thomas, communication project manager (net zero), Northern Housing Consortium