SHDF Demonstrator – West Midlands (2 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

The West Midlands — Crawford & Co Surveyors provided the retrofit assessments and PAS 2035 coordination behind this SHDF Demonstrator programme for the landlord.

Crawford & Co Surveyors delivered retrofit assessment, retrofit coordination and PAS 2030/PAS 2035 consultancy for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Demonstrator Fund — the programme that tested how deep retrofit could go on occupied social housing before the main SHDF waves began.

The Demonstrator target was more demanding than the waves that followed: fabric-first to EPC band C and a space-heating demand of 50 kWh/m² per year. Thirty directly employed retrofit assessors completed 300 assessments in a single month across five housing associations, capturing the maximum possible data in one visit per home.

Our assessors and coordinators are directly employed rather than subcontracted, and work to an in-house assessment and coordination system built above the PAS 2035 requirements across more than 25 schemes. Coordination runs on our own system with no per-property software fee, so scheme funding stays in the homes rather than in licences.

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

Thirty retrofit assessors, 300 assessments in one month, five housing associations, and a target of EPC band C at 50 kWh/m² per year. 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 across the programme, so the client can see which homes moved furthest and where demand remains. Full per-property data is available to the client.

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

Abbie, Crawford & Co SurveyorsAbbieSocial value leadDuring this project Abbie was on a Business Administration Apprenticeship, funded directly from this contract.

Read about the apprentices, placements and interns we have supported

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