Findings from a University of Roehampton-led roundtable event have informed new recommendations on Retrofit in South London.

This instrumental new document collates a wide variety of perspectives on South London retrofit and is set to stimulate conversation and debate going forward.

South London has become a driving force in the mission to Net Zero. In December 2023, the South London Partnership established the Retrofit Skills Centre – a project that promotes training pathways, qualifications, events and resources to help upskill the workforce to meet retrofit demands.

In May 2024, the University of Roehampton, in collaboration with London-based innovation and delivery consultancy Studio Zao, hosted the South London Retrofit Roundtable event. The event set out to reimagine and design the future of retrofit in South London, aligning on the opportunities, priorities and challenges represented by retrofit. Beyond this, the group explored the broader potential for the creation of a recognised retrofit and built environment cluster within South London to drive the transition to net zero.

Studio Zao has collated the discussions from the event into a South London Retrofit report, which is designed to spark further conversation to help steer South London towards Net Zero. Some of the main discussion points which are reflected in the document include:

• Educating and upskilling the workforce: exploring motivations for retrofit career pathways and improving both awareness and access to training and educational activities.
• Creating a fluid pipeline for innovators to commercialise their products: uniting partners to design and define an innovation pathway, helping them to take their green-tech products and services to market faster.
• Financing and funding: centralising funding for investment into retrofit pilot programmes through the creation of a centralised fund. Also, exploring financing approaches that promote validated investment decision-making whilst part-centralising funding opportunities from national sources.
• Policy, planning and structure: delivering leadership forums at a sub-regional level to share knowledge around policy change and develop collective business cases.
• Data: developing a sub-regional database for information and data on the built environment in South London, which can be used to inform decisions about priority areas and activity delivery.

Chris Baker, Studio Zao said: “Innovation is a great excuse to bring people together. The Retrofit roundtable event in May was an exercise in just this – over 50 partners working through the crunchy topics of what could be done and enabled to ensure Retrofit remains a priority on all agendas and a source of pride in place in the South London region for years to come.  This report – the output of this session – demonstrates a clear desire and commitment to move beyond talking and into appropriate, valuable action at a sub-regional level.”

Matthew Hamilton, Director of the South London Partnership, said: “We welcome the findings from the roundtable which provide a framework for taking forward further discussion and help steer us towards a more sustainable future for South London. The discussions highlighted the critical need for partnership and collaboration. By working together, we can harness our collective expertise and resources to drive innovation and achieve our shared goal of a net-zero future.”

Read the full Retrofit Report

To discuss the Retrofit Report and how your organisation can get involved, email Paul Kirkbright.