The Measuring Outcomes and Impact Evaluation project creates an opportunity to expand the impact of UK retrofit programmes moving beyond energy efficiency to also capture health and wellbeing benefits. By developing clear ways to understand local needs and measure results, we can unlock new insights, ensure that ambitions turn into tangible improvements, and demonstrate the full value these programmes bring to people and communities.
Building on the research behind our State of the Nation Review of Retrofit Delivery, it is clear that central and local government are working with metrics that, while useful, are too narrow to capture the full picture of the potential benefits quality retrofit can deliver. Whilst indicators like EPC improvements, the number of measures installed, or fuel-poverty alleviation matter, they don’t fully capture what communities need. To scale retrofit delivery, we must measure what matters to people and build evaluation programmes around methods involving real-world measurement.
Retrofit done well, integrated with local knowledge and measured to prove the value of investment, has the potential to improve health outcomes. But how can this be built into delivery? This project explores what it would take to create a more rigorous foundation for scaling retrofit programmes for the benefit of communities across the UK.
Our starting question was:
“How can broader outcome measurement accelerate retrofit delivery and be designed to drive better policy, funding, and delivery decisions, particularly to maximise co-benefits like health and equity in a fiscally constrained environment?”
Working with our partners, Arup, Impact on Urban Health, and TrustMark, we have developed a series of work packages to unpack this question and deliver practical outputs for the retrofit movement
The outputs to date have included:
- Airtable data directory of best practice and case studies
- Reflections from initial Stakeholder Engagement workshops
- Innovator Profiles that showcase practical, tested frameworks designed to track social, environmental, and economic impact
Future outputs will include:
- Insights Paper from Stakeholder Engagement workshops
- Insights Paper from deeper dive into literature gathered about best practice and case studies, currently being supported by Dr. Kate Simpson
- An assessment on taking a Community Impact Health Assessment approach to understanding the health needs of a given place – with Centric Lab
- Policy recommendations following a Future Visioning workshop delivered in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering
Today we publish a baseline analysis of what is, and isn’t, currently being measured. This document provides an overview of various retrofit delivery programmes across the UK, focusing on their targets, measurement metrics, and data gaps related to energy efficiency and carbon reduction initiatives. It highlights where there is good practice in certain schemes and programmes that can be built upon. It also illustrates the varying strengths of different retrofit schemes in measuring energy, carbon, and non-energy impacts and highlights the need for improved metrics and methodologies in measuring retrofit outcomes and impacts to enhance policy and funding decisions.
Take a look at the report here.
