Terraced streets seen from above at dusk. Illustrative image

Case study · City of York Council, York

60 off-gas homes, from the sign up event to the warranty pack.

A whole house retrofit of privately owned off-gas homes for City of York Council under the Home Upgrade Grant, phase 2, including finding and signing up the households. Project led by Miles Sharples, now Managing Director of Energy Giants, with a skilled, accredited workforce.¹

Recent retrofit project60 homes²£600,000 programme³Home Upgrade Grant, phase 2

The numbers from the programme

Off-gas homes

Privately owned homes in the City of York area.²

£600k

Programme value

From the programme documentation.³

Measure types

Heat pumps, solar PV, room in roof, internal wall, cavity and loft insulation, and ventilation.

The measures

Off the oil, the LPG and the storage heaters.

Homes off the gas grid are often the most expensive in the country to heat. The Home Upgrade Grant pays to fix the fabric and the heating together: room in roof, internal wall, cavity and loft insulation to cut the heat demand, full ventilation upgrades to keep the home healthy, then air source heat pumps and solar PV to supply what is left.

Getting the order right is the whole job. Insulate first and the heat pump can be sized for the house it will heat, not the leaky one that was there before.

Gabled dormer windows in a slate roof. Illustrative image — Rooms in the roof are often the coldest in the house. Illustrative image, not necessarily a York property.

Brick homes with solar panels on the roofs. Illustrative image — Solar PV supplies what the insulation leaves. Illustrative image.

One home, the whole house approach

Seven measure types, in the right order.

Insulate first, then the heat pump and the solar. Here is one example off-gas home with a room in the roof, with the heat loss shrinking as each measure goes in.

Fabric first, then the heating, on one example off-gas home: loft, room in roof, internal wall and cavity wall insulation, ventilation, an air source heat pump and solar PV. Illustration, not a York property and not to scale.

The work

Finding the households was part of the job.

On this scheme the sign up and qualification of homeowners sat with the delivery team. Working with the Energy Friends charity and the Fairer Warmth team, the programme ran sign up events at local community venues, where Energy Friends also gave energy saving advice and booked one to one appointments for help with retrofit and fuel bills.

Energy Friends then supported the dedicated resident liaison officers in guiding each owner through the whole process, from survey to the handover of warranties.

Unlike a council or housing association programme, every home here was privately owned, so each owner decided for themselves whether to take part. That is why the sign up events, the advice on the day and a named liaison officer mattered as much as the installation.

A street of brick semi-detached houses. Illustrative image — Illustrative image, not necessarily a York property.

The programme

A council scheme for homeowners.

City of York Council ran the Home Upgrade Grant, phase 2, for privately owned homes off the gas grid: the homes that are hardest and most expensive to heat. The delivery team met the council’s contract administrator every week to report progress and settle issues.

In-house resident liaison and retrofit coordination officers, supported by Energy Friends and the Fairer Warmth app, kept homeowners informed and the programme records every home as meeting the PAS requirements.⁴

Chimneys and rooftops along a terraced street. Illustrative image — Illustrative image.

What was delivered

The specification.

Client	City of York Council
Scheme	Home Upgrade Grant, phase 2 (HUG2), for homes off the gas grid
Homes	60 privately owned off-gas homes in the City of York area
Measures	Air source heat pumps, solar PV, room in roof, internal wall, cavity wall and loft insulation, full ventilation upgrades
The package	Homeowner sign up and qualification, pre-installation building inspection, retrofit assessment and design, installation, compliance, customer sign off, warranties and TrustMark lodgement
Community partners	Energy Friends charity and the Fairer Warmth team
Standards	Delivered to PAS 2030 and PAS 2035 on the programme
Project lead	Miles Sharples, now Managing Director, Energy Giants¹
Status	Recent retrofit project, complete

Step oneFind
Sign up events at community venues, run with Energy Friends and the Fairer Warmth team.
Step twoQualify and survey
Each owner’s eligibility checked, then a building inspection and a retrofit design for the home.
Step threeFabric, then heat
Room in roof, wall and loft insulation and ventilation, with heat pumps and solar PV where the design called for them.
Step fourWarranties in hand
A liaison officer, backed by Energy Friends, with each owner from survey to the handover of warranties.

Running a grant scheme for homeowners? Talk to a team that can fill it.

Councils: homeowner schemes need households found, qualified and supported, not just installed. The team that delivered this programme is now at Energy Giants, working as a retrofit subcontractor for councils and main contractors.

Talk to us about a programme Ring 01200 407790

Notes on the figures

Shown as the track record of Miles Sharples, who led this programme, and of the skilled, accredited team now at Energy Giants.
Homes: 60 privately owned off-gas homes, from the programme documentation.
Programme value £600,000, from the programme documentation.
Grant claims and PAS compliance as recorded in the programme documentation.
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.
Photographs on this page are illustrative and are not necessarily of York properties.