Blog3rd March 2026
Four months on from the implementation of Awaab’s Law – which requires councils to respond to issues of damp, condensation, and black mould within 24 hours – it feels like exactly the right moment to be honest about the scale of the retrofit challenge facing local authority landlords. And to explain why, after fifteen years working in this space, I believe a fundamentally different delivery model is now not just helpful, but essential.
A fundamentally different delivery model is now not just helpful, but essential.
A historic estate, a modern crisis
Here in Barking and Dagenham, we are responsible for the Becontree Estate – the first and the largest housing estate ever built in Europe. 27,000 homes, many of them solid, well-constructed properties built as part of the 1919 Garden City vision – homes fit for heroes returning from the First World War. They were built to last, and in many respects they have. And we want them to serve residents for the next 100 years too.
But ‘solid’ does not mean problem-free. Across this portfolio there are significant, persistent issues with damp, black mould, and condensation. Awaab’s Law has now made the urgency of addressing these issues a legal reality.
The numbers don’t lie
On top of Awaab’s Law, we are four years away from Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) regulations coming into full force for social housing – meaning a colossal effort to deliver EPC improvements at scale. And like every local authority, we have net zero targets to meet.
Let me give you a sense check of where we actually stand. Working with our strategic delivery partner, we have made reasonable progress – around 2,000 homes retrofitted over the last five years, covering energy efficiency measures and some whole-house retrofit. By 2028, we expect to reach approximately 3,500 homes.
However, to meet our net-zero targets we need to retrofit 57,000 homes by 2025. That’s 2,280 homes a year and we are currently lucky to achieve about 200. You can acknowledge the challenge we have – and I know it’s a challenge shared by all landlords.
To meet our net zero targets, we need to retrofit 57,000 homes by 2050. That means 2,280 homes every single year. We are currently delivering around 200.
Why the old way isn’t working
Each retrofit programme we have run has come with its own distinct set of problems. Resident engagement. Incomplete or inaccurate stock data. Funding regimes that don’t align with delivery timelines. Principal contractor arrangements that create friction rather than flow. These aren’t niche operational issues – they are systemic barriers that slow every programme down and drive up costs.
Portfolio assessment, for example, is a fundamental part of creating a streamlined and successful retrofit programme. But, quite frankly, our data is duff. You spend ages on desktop research and arrive at the property to find out it’s all wrong – adding cost, complexity and time.
You spend ages on desktop research and arrive at the property to find out it’s all wrong – adding cost, complexity and time.
Resident engagement is another critical challenge. We’ve currently got 100 refusals for a scheme – and just one Resident Liaison Officer engaging with each to unpick the issues. The reasons are manifold. ECO4 failures are worrying them. They don’t want the disruption. They don’t want to remove their satellite dish.
Or in some cases, poor experience means they’ve dropped out. Once trust is lost, it’s hard to recover – and no-one wins.
We’ve currently got 100 refusals for a scheme – and just one Resident Liaison Officer engaging with each to unpick the issues.
Why Transform-ER changes the equation
This is precisely why I believe Transform-ER represents something genuinely different – tackling all these challenges in one.
And I’ve already seen it in action. Transform-ER has surveyed 2,000 properties in our area – at an area and neighbourhood scale rather than on a property-by-property basis. This is improving efficiencies by batch assessing and processing thousands of homes at a time.
Bringing together Ambue’s portfolio analysis and pipeline assessment expertise with Planarific’s drone scanning for geometric data, we think it’s an absolutely fantastic tool.
We aren’t going in blind now – we know which homes have the conservatory without planning permission, we know who has a car port.
This is precisely why I believe Transform-ER represents something genuinely different – tackling all these challenges in one.
We’re also delighted by how resident engagement was handled in the demonstrator project on the Becontree estate. It’s the polar opposite of what I talked about earlier – the resident was involved from the start. She was asked what mattered to her and small fixes – like repairing water pressure and installing storage – were woven into the programme. She felt respected and listened to, and we reaped the benefits in goodwill.
Transform-ER is offering a realistic path to closing the gap between where we are and where we need to be – for our residents, for our regulatory obligations, and for our net-zero commitments. We’re excited for the next steps.
This blog is adapted from Neil’s keynote address delivered at Transform-ER’s showcase event in Barking and Dagenham on 11 February 2026.
Find out more about Transform-ER’s approach and how we help landlords.