We are hiring nine people. Most of them are trades: insulation installers, plasterers, roofers and decorators, plus an apprentice. The reason is a change in who pays for retrofit, and Lancashire Business View has published our story on LBV Hub.
Here is the short version, and what it means if you are a tradesperson, a council or a housing provider.
Who pays for retrofit is changing
For more than ten years most insulation and heating upgrades for lower income households were paid for by the big energy suppliers, through the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). The current scheme, ECO4, ends on 31 December 2026.
In its place is the government’s Warm Homes Plan, worth £15 billion over five years. Help for lower income homes now reaches them through councils, including the £500 million Warm Homes: Local Grant. So the customer for this work is now a council or a housing association, not an energy company with a target.
“They will still be that tenant’s landlord in ten years, so they want to see the standards, the paperwork and the people before you get anywhere near a front door. I think that is right.”
Miles Sharples, Managing Director
Every role, where it is based and how to apply is on our careers page.
Why we are building our own teams
Councils and housing providers want to know who is actually turning up at a tenant’s house. That is hard to answer if every trade is a different subcontractor. So we are employing the trades ourselves and training them in the PAS 2030 and PAS 2035 retrofit standards and in how to work in a home with a family living in it.
The trades work in order. Insulation installers fix and seal the boards, plasterers finish over them, decorators hand the room back, and roofers alter eaves and verges where the insulation needs it. Work on the new programmes mobilises from late 2026.
The nine roles
- Internal wall insulation installers
- Plasterers
- Pitched roofers
- Painters and decorators
- An apprentice plasterer
- A solar PV sales manager, at our HQ in Clitheroe
- An assistant solar designer and sales administrator, at HQ
- A qualified electrician for solar and battery storage
Where each role is based, what we look for and how to apply are on the careers page. Trade roles on occupied homes need an enhanced DBS check.
Read the full story
The full article on LBV Hub covers the funding change and Miles’s view on training in more detail. Energy Giants is a member of LBV Hub, the business network run by Lancashire Business View, and all our posts there are on our member page.
Miles has spent two decades in retrofit and has worked at scale across the UK, with long-standing relationships with local authorities including Kirklees Council, Durham County Council and Ribble Valley Borough Council. He has project-directed programmes for housing associations and delivery partners including Aspire Housing, Sureserve, LivGreen and BroadOak, and for energy suppliers including E.ON Next, Utilita, British Gas, Octopus and UKEM.