How councils are tackling the retrofit skills gap

A new report provides guidance for councils on how to play their part in tackling the retrofit skills gap.

This report is the third in a series by author Charlotte Ravenscroft looking at the retrofit skills gap. This new report focuses on the role of councils in closing the retrofit skills gap in England.

Local councils have played a significant role in commissioning retrofit delivery over the past few years, mainly for social housing and low-income households. Yet this new research, which is based on interviews with councils, finds that their impact on boosting retrofit skills has been limited.

The report found:

• Retrofit leads in councils had not been involved in local skills improvement plans (LSIPs), which had been authored by local employer bodies. This helps explain why the size and significance of the retrofit skills gap have not been fully recognised in LSIPs.
• Councils have primarily procured retrofit services from larger construction firms that subcontract work to smaller firms and individual tradespeople. Councils have had limited influence over these supply chains.
• The tight budgets and short timescales set by central government for retrofit programmes have restricted councils’ ability to require firms to upskill their supply chains or take on additional apprentices, because the training needed would take longer than the delivery of the programmes.

However, the report also notes that all the council staff interviewed recognised the need to address the retrofit skills gap and it includes case studies highlighting promising practice underway in some councils.

Examples include strategic authorities, such as Greater Manchester, convening retrofit taskforces to join up the planning of retrofit delivery and skills and using their devolved funding settlement to pilot a new longer-term area-based approach. Other case studies highlight the importance of forecasting, having improved contract monitoring in place and working with community organisations and local residents.

The report looks at those changes that will provide councils with more opportunities to positively influence retrofit skills: strategic authorities taking joint responsibility for LSIPs from autumn 2025, the move towards devolved funding settlements in mayoral authorities and Warm Homes grants lasting for three years.

The report offers guidance on next steps, based on the case studies and the findings from all the reports in this research series.

The full report can be found here.