SHDF Demonstrator – West Midlands (1 of 5)
Measured across our retrofit programmes
- 2,493homes with a post-works EPC
- +11average SAP points gained
- D → Caverage band movement
- 99.6%finish at band C or better
Crawford & Co assessed and coordinated these homes. Figures cover every programme where works are complete and a post-works EPC has been lodged, September 2026, and are not specific to this project.
Overview
As Retrofit Coordinators for the SHDF Demonstrator with the landlord housing association, Crawford & Co Surveyors improved the energy efficiency of residential properties across the West Midlands.
Scope: a full fabric-first package — External Wall Insulation (EWI), Cavity Wall Insulation (CWI), loft insulation, window and door replacement and low-energy lighting.
Approach: we coordinated and implemented every measure to TrustMark quality and performance standards, managing documentation and compliance throughout.
Outcome: warmer, lower-carbon homes with better living conditions for residents, delivered as part of one of the sector’s early Demonstrator projects.
Eddy
Project Manager
Strategy
Fabric
Demonstrator stock spanned almost every construction type in the social housing register: solid masonry, cavity, timber frame, steel frame, concrete and Wimpey no-fines. Measures ran correspondingly wide — loft, room-in-roof and flat-roof insulation, cavity wall insulation, external and internal wall insulation, underfloor insulation, and windows and doors.
Reaching 50 kWh/m² per year rather than 90 changes what the fabric has to do. It puts more weight on continuity of insulation and on resolving pre-existing defects properly, because the margin for a measure that underperforms is much smaller.
Service
Air source heat pumps and high heat retention storage radiators were installed where the property and the household suited them, sized against the demand the fabric measures left rather than the original heat loss.
Ventilation was designed as part of the same decision as airtightness. At Demonstrator performance levels that is not optional — a home taken to 50 kWh/m² per year without a considered ventilation strategy is a moisture problem waiting to happen.
Renewables
Solar PV formed part of the measure mix where roof orientation, structure and condition allowed, added after the fabric work so that generation offsets a reduced demand.
Constraints were unusually heavy on this programme: conservation areas, listed status, bird nesting seasons and bat hibernation all restricted what could be installed and when, and had to be planned around rather than worked around.
Vital Statistics
Properties in scope: 32.
Crawford & Co scope: Retrofit Assessment, Retrofit Coordination, Retrofit Design.
Measures installed: External wall insulation, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, window and door upgrades, low-energy lighting.
Programme period: 2021 to 2022 (indicative).
Each assessment records the property’s construction and its modelled performance before and after the proposed measures — space-heating demand in kWh/m² per year, carbon in kg per year and estimated energy cost. Figures are held per property rather than averaged, and are available to the client in full.
Detailing
The Demonstrator’s value was in the questions it forced. Where PAS 2035 left a technical point genuinely open, we consulted Dr Peter Rickaby — one of the standard’s authors — directly, rather than settling it by assumption.
The bespoke retrofit condition report developed for this programme was approved by both the scheme provider and TrustMark, and the work contributed to our managing director’s appointment to the BS 40104 steering group, the British Standard for retrofit assessment.
Further Data
Standards
PAS 2035 / PAS 2030
Comfort
The measure of this work is a home that is warmer, drier and more affordable to run, and that stays that way. Lower heat demand is only part of it — even temperatures, humidity that stays under control and plant that runs quietly all decide whether a resident actually feels the difference.
Residents live in these homes throughout. Capturing everything needed in a single assessment visit exists for exactly that reason.
Monitoring
Assessors were divided between the five housing associations, and coordinators quality-checked every assessment before it reached design. Weekly meetings with clients, designers and installers ran for the duration of the programme.
Post-completion documentation complied with TrustMark submission requirements and was returned through secure data sharing.
Social Value
RoxanneSocial value leadDuring this project Roxanne was on a university placement, funded directly from this contract.