Two Decades of Housing Retrofit Policies in England: Beyond the Stern Review

The Net Zero debate is getting more contested as 25% of the UK emissions are directly attributable to the built environment, and 80% of it is expected to come from the existing building stock. Hence, decarbonising the existing building stock is significant, as the domestic housing sector dominates. There is a strong connection between the UK government policies and the progression of housing retrofit. However, limited studies have reviewed this interdependency. The Stern Review validated the importance of early action on climate change two decades ago. Ever since the UK adopted a strong climate change agenda when developing policies. This study aimed to analyse the housing retrofit policy actions over the last two decades and their influence on improving the performance of the housing stock. The study is limited to analysing policy actions relevant to England, which maintains the largest residential housing stock in the UK, with 26 million homes compared with Scotland’s 2.5 million, Wales’s 1.5 million and Northern Ireland’s 0.8 million, while keeping the narrative in the UK context. The detailed policy review, along with political party manifesto analysis, was undertaken as the main data collection strategy. The data was analysed chronologically to explain the patterns and underline narratives. Findings reveal that the existing retrofit policies are not always in favour of the broader sustainability requirements of the country. Governments have changed their direction quite often and focused on short-term priorities for long-term gains. There is a critical need for robust, consistent and transparent policies (interconnected with other policies) as a long-term strategy for achieving sustainable goals.