How do retrofit and climate resilience work together?
As London’s summers get hotter, many energy‑inefficient homes are increasingly at risk of also overheating in the Summer.
A recent King's College London study shows the burden falls heaviest on financially insecure Londoners. In a survey last year, nearly half of social housing residents described their homes as too hot during 2025's heatwave. Although often retrofit measures can help keep homes cooler, current grant programmes don’t fund overheating‑specific solutions.
To explore how retrofit and climate resilience can work together in a real delivery context, later this year we will begin a ‘Retrofit for Resilience’ pilot project with the London Borough of Newham.
The pilot will install cooling and shading solutions in selected social housing homes already scheduled for upgrades under Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 3, and identified as being at higher risk of overheating.
By combining temperature sensor data with resident feedback and delivery insight, we’ll build real‑world evidence on how retrofit programmes can strengthen both climate resilience and energy performance, helping ensure homes remain comfortable, efficient, and future‑ready.
