Why is making UK homes more efficient so difficult? Leyla Boulton (Green Conservation; Financial Times)

Why is making UK homes more efficient so difficult? So asked journalist Leyla Boulton earlier this year in the pages of the Financial Times.

Seeing a retrofit article in the FT piqued our interest, even more so once we realised Leyla is a senior editor with an esteemed background in political and environmental reporting. She was reporting on Kyoto where no one cared.

Since beginning her retrofit journey Leyla has become a campaigner and it's this that you'll hear as we discuss the mainstreaming retrofit for the able-to-pay market, an endeavour borne of her experiences delving into the retrofit sector motivated by efforts to make her own home more energy efficient.

Typically we talk about the barriers to take up, a desperately unhelpful planning bureaucracy, poorly designed institutional support, hamstrung local authorities and councils, and the need to do better in designing a system that works.

Do check Leyla's article if you can. In spite of the broad air of dismay at how difficult things are, she describes meeting lots of helpful and enthusiastic people who were hamstrung in their efforts.


Notes from the show

• Leyla Boulton on LinkedIn
• Five Lessons from a Neighbourhood Campaign (FT, December 2023) - a free-to-read article in the FT on Leyla's campaign (the others are paywalled)
• Why is making UK homes more efficient so difficult? (FT, April 2024) 
• The More in Common research at E3G webinar and slides (July 2024)
• Planning reform for retrofit of listed and conservation area homes - the public-facing report on our Green Conservation campaign's meeting of councils to share best practice on planning reform for retrofit (June 18 2024)
• Leyla and Anne-Marie Huby's Green Conservation campaign website 
• The Transform-ER project video on the plan to design a system that enables the retrofit sector to scale and upgrade one million homes a year by 2030 (Transform-ER stands for 'Transform. Engage. Retrofit.') 
• Chris Procter's Climate Emergency Conservation Area Toolkit (direct DL link here)
  
  

**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**
We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.

• Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)
• Jeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - [e-mail]; Everything is User Experience
• Subscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)
• Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon Upfront
• Join ACAN
• Join the AECB 
• Join the IGBC
• Check out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women

**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

What is Zero Ambitions Podcast?

Zero Ambitions is a consultancy and weekly podcast about sustainability and the built environment.

We find interesting and experienced guests who know what they're talking about, usually to discuss how we navigate the complexity of decarbonisation and sustainability in the built environment and its many related sectors.

The success of the podcast has seen it grow into a consultancy, Zero Ambitions Partners. The consultancy works with blue chip clients, public sector institutions, and niche-market innovators that operate in the built environment, advising about the development and delivery of sustainability strategy and how it should be communicated.

Hosted by Jeff Colley (Passive House Plus), Dan Hyde (Everything is User Experience) and Alex Blondin (Everything is User Experience).