Case study · Durham County Council, County Durham
250 homes, 690 measures, and every household kept in the loop.
A whole house retrofit for Durham County Council across Ferryhill, Shildon and Evenwood, delivered from first sign up to final lodgement. Project led by Miles Sharples, now Managing Director of Energy Giants, with a skilled, accredited workforce.1
The numbers from the programme
250
Homes upgraded
Privately owned homes in Ferryhill, Shildon and Evenwood.2
690
Energy efficiency measures
Insulation, ventilation, roof works and solar PV, matched to each home.2
£1m
Approximate programme value
A whole house programme for a county council.3
Before and after
A whole house approach, not a single measure.
Durham County Council wanted each home to get the combination of measures that would lift its SAP score as far as it would go and cut the household’s bills, rather than one measure dropped in on its own. That meant insulation to the walls and roofs that needed it, loft top ups where they were short, ventilation so the warmer homes stayed dry, and solar PV on every roof that suited it.
Alongside the measures came the work that makes them last: roof repairs, ventilation upgrades, and new fascias and soffits where the old ones would not take the detailing.
The work
Turnkey, from the doorstep to the lodgement.
The scheme was run turnkey to PAS 2030 and PAS 2035 on the programme: customer qualification, the pre-installation building inspection, retrofit assessment and design, installation, compliance, customer sign off, warranties and the TrustMark lodgement.
A single named project manager handled every conversation with the council and its agent. Survey, design and installation ran to one programme, tracked on a shared Teams dashboard of delivery KPIs, with a weekly meeting to report progress and deal with problems while they were still small.
Resident liaison and retrofit coordination sat with in-house officers, not with whoever was on site that day, so households knew who to ring and the paperwork matched the work.
The programme
Residents helping residents.
The scheme was largely funded by Durham County Council directly, with many of the homes also receiving a grant under the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery scheme, phase 2 (LAD2). The council’s grant claims were successful.4
The programme worked with the Durham Energy Friends charity, which trained residents in Ferryhill and Evenwood as Energy Champions: neighbours who mentored neighbours and helped the resident liaison officers reach hard to reach and vulnerable homeowners through the process.
The programme records it as delivered on schedule and on budget, with every home meeting the PAS requirements, despite the weather and supply chain problems along the way.4
Delivered for Durham County Council under the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery scheme, phase 2.
What was delivered
The specification.
| Client | Durham County Council |
|---|---|
| Scheme | Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery, phase 2 (LAD2), alongside the council’s own funding |
| Homes | 250 privately owned homes in Ferryhill, Shildon and Evenwood, County Durham |
| Measures | Flat roof insulation, external, internal and cavity wall insulation, loft insulation top ups, ventilation upgrades and solar PV on suitable roofs. 690 measures in total |
| Associated works | Roof works, and fascia and soffit replacement |
| The package | Customer qualification, pre-installation building inspection, retrofit assessment and design, installation, compliance, customer sign off, warranties and TrustMark lodgement |
| Standards | Delivered to PAS 2030 and PAS 2035 on the programme |
| Community partner | Durham Energy Friends, training residents as Energy Champions |
| Project lead | Miles Sharples, now Managing Director, Energy Giants1 |
| Status | Recent retrofit project, complete |
- Step oneSign up and qualify
Each household qualified for the scheme and talked through what would happen, before any survey.
- Step twoSurvey and design
A pre-installation building inspection, a retrofit assessment and a design for each home, not a blanket specification.
- Step threeInstall
The measures sequenced so each one supports the next, with residents told the dates and kept informed throughout.
- Step fourHand over and lodge
Compliance checks, customer sign off, the warranties and the TrustMark lodgement, home by home.
In residents’ words
What the households said.
“All of the workmen were always very helpful and would even go out of their way to do all the things you asked them to do. Very pleased with all the work and the finished look of the property.”
“We’re very satisfied with the work done. Everyone was polite and explained everything well. We’re very happy with the outcome.”
Planning a whole house programme? Talk to the people who have run one.
Councils and housing providers: multi-measure retrofit in occupied homes lives or dies on resident liaison and paperwork. The team that delivered this scheme is now at Energy Giants, and we work as a retrofit subcontractor for councils, housing providers and main contractors.
Notes on the figures
- This programme was delivered under a contract held by a previous company. It appears here as the track record of Miles Sharples, who led it, and of the skilled, accredited workforce and office team now at Energy Giants. Energy Giants was not the contracting party.
- Homes and measures: 250 homes and 690 measures, from the scheme case study documents.
- Programme value approximately £1.0m, from the scheme case study documents.
- Funding, grant claims, schedule, budget and PAS compliance as recorded in the scheme case study documents.
- No energy, bill or carbon saving is stated on this page. Savings depend on the house, the measures and the year, and any figure we publish later will carry its assumptions.
- Resident comments are from the scheme case study documents and are shown without names. Images other than the before, during and after picture are illustrative and are not of County Durham properties.