Opinion piece by Derek Horrocks 
Owner of Sustainable Building Services (UK) Ltd and chair of the National Insulation Association (NIA) and National Home Decarbonisation Group (NHDG)

There is a golden opportunity in front of us – with much more to gain than simply improving energy efficiency of homes. By working together, we can take the unique step of combining numerous benefits in one swoop – to achieve net zero while making homes safer, improving people’s physical and mental health, and tackling fuel poverty.

Attracting new talent and upskilling at scale

We need 200,000 competent energy-efficiency and low-carbon technology ‘retrofitters’, so it’s easily understandable why confidence and investment are critical to success – with skills and training remaining the biggest barrier to be broken down.

The industry is aware of the reputational change needed to attract new talent. We have to showcase more than just what jobs we have and show what our industry can achieve – such as how the retrofit and decarbonisation of homes makes real change in people’s lives and within communities. Through our work, we are directly tackling the biggest crises of our time, including the cost of living and energy crises – helping to take pressure off the health service through improved health and wellbeing from better living conditions, while helping address fuel poverty too.

By doing this, we can show the industry as the most alluring job choice of all – but to secure potential new talent, the courses and pathways to the qualifications for the future have to be in place.

It would be easy to be ‘doom and gloom’ about this, but fortunately, as long as they adhere to national occupational criteria, we are in the perfect position to develop and shape the specialist courses we so clearly need. This is something already happening in the insulation industry, with its various routes for obtaining funding and qualifications. The next step is creating clear pathways for accessing new skillsets for people to train in newer fields like retrofit assessment, retrofit coordination or with low-carbon technologies – which all work towards closing the skills gap.

Along with sharing skills and knowledge with those already working in retrofit decarbonisation, we need new talent to expand the workforce, its output, and our collective ability to tackle climate change, alleviate fuel poverty, and create green jobs.

For the current workforce, we want a standardised approach to accreditations – one that can be universally recognised as a stamp of quality on schemes. Not only will this provide workers with peace of mind their ability will be accurately reflected when looking for or securing work, but businesses will also be better incentivised to upskill people or bring in new apprentices with the knowledge their investment isn’t being wasted.

It can be challenging for some training providers to guarantee enrolment onto specific courses in particular regions. This is an opportunity that members of organisations like the NHDG – Tier 1 contractors and energy suppliers – can unlock. Their ability to commit people in their supply chains to be trained at scale in certain skills provides a guarantee for training providers to put on the courses, while also having the expertise to develop new qualifications.

In turn, this increases course viability and develops the skills where they are required. From there, the skills will cascade down supply chains and have positive impact on communities.

Since these retrofit courses are essentially new skills, we must upskill the instructors too. The challenge is that the people with the expertise needed are in high demand for delivering the work – and therefore are unlikely to walk away from a lucrative opportunity.

Again, industry-wide collaborations like the NHDG have the potential to influence change. With more than 25 members, wider impact can be felt if each contributed individuals on secondments to pass on their specialist expertise to the training organisations conducting courses. Of course, this isn’t to say this expertise does not exist in smaller organisations too – but it acknowledges how much harder it would be for a team of 30 to second a team member for this task than for a larger organisation.

Developing and maintaining policy momentum

We have many voices singing the same tune, but we’re still en route to a harmonious directive. The great news is that the past five years have seen more government investment in decarbonisation than ever before. £6 billion – initially announced in the 2022 Autumn Statement – will be allocated between 2025 and 2028 to benefit the public sector, private owner-occupiers, and private landlords.

Excellent progress has been seen, with almost 50% of properties in England now holding an EPC C rating, and more recent announcements have been encouraging, taking more positive steps towards decarbonising housing and transforming lives.

An extra £1.5 billion for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme gives the opportunity to tie this £7,500 offering into whole-house decarbonisation proposals, which with ECO for fabric measures should create an attractive large-scale offering. Meanwhile, an additional £1.25 billion for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) will be match-funded.

The government has now committed to spend £12.6 billion between 2022 and 2028, which is above manifesto commitments and will make a genuine difference to thousands. This commitment level provides confidence to invest in training and upskilling initiatives upskill – and we will be watching with interest any further announcements in the upcoming Spring Budget.

This all being said – we can’t rest on our laurels. National commitment needs to be maintained and increased with further investment and more sophisticated training and qualifications. We must work with government to make the most of any funds allocated, showcase our proactivity – and what solutions exist or can be developed.

Opportunity lies in collaboration

Undoubtedly, the climate crisis is the largest challenge we face. The actions we take now will drastically affect the future of our planet and everyone living on it. This may seem daunting, but it offers hope and potential. Because of the momentous importance, it’s an opportunity to unify and tackle it together.

The message is clear; a single coordinated approach will work towards solving a multitude of the biggest challenges in the UK. The industry just needs to steady its course and work together to achieve it, while holding ourselves accountable together to meeting shared aims.