Hanover Scotland Homes saved from demolition

Volume of work and project durations

Hanover Scotland have been housing and supporting people for over 40 years and manage over 5,000 homes. We were contracted to carry out Energy Efficiency Retrofit Works to upgrade 25 of their housing units in New Scone. This project was a 7 month, £1.3 million whole-house retrofit for sheltered, retirement accommodation consisting of 25 mid-terraced and end-terraced bungalows that were previously scheduled for demolition. However, our works transformed these properties, ensuring that residents retained sustainable and warm housing.

The improvement works included:

• Asbestos removal
• External wall insulation and associated works
• Re-roofing, including roof extensions
• In-roof solar PV
• Battery storage
• Heating – high heat-retention storage heaters
• Ventilation upgrades

The following was also carried out on each individual property:

• Whole house survey in line with PAS requirements
• Technical surveys for measures such as ASHPs
• Retrofit Coordination, design and planning
• Suitable and adequate ventilation
• Health and safety and quality checks
• Inspections of work

Constraints, risks, and challenges encountered and successful mitigation

Following assessment and survey works, asbestos was identified. We take pride that we were able to manage the removal of the asbestos for 25 properties within 7 weeks. This was carried out without having to relocate any residents, many of whom were vulnerable and elderly.

We adhere to ISO 9001 and 45001-accredited quality and safety standards and take our responsibilities especially seriously, as such we conducted weekly progress meetings with Hanover discussing progress, risks to costs, risks of delays, and any health & safety concerns, enabling us to successfully overcome this challenge without impacting safety or progress.

Community and stakeholder engagement

Our site manager, contracts manager and H&S manager were present throughout the project to facilitate successful resident engagement and deployment of resources. This allowed us to carefully manage scheduled works, minimising disruption of asbestos works.

Many residents were experiencing additional challenges such as blindness and dementia. As our entire team undergoes safeguard training and DBS checks as part of our robust training programme, we were able to adapt to this and closely engage the residents’ family members where required. This ensured their safety and minimised delays that could be caused by no-access visits. Our team also created added value by engaging effectively with the residents and becoming trusted, friendly faces that implemented important retrofit measures and helped them with extra tasks to ensure safe and secure homes, as demonstrated in the thank you card above.

Management of public interfaces: As this project involved external wall insulation works, successful liaison occurred between approved Architects, ourselves and the local Council, ensuring that the required building warrants and planning permissions were successfully obtained before works commenced.

Funding process

The majority of the installation measures provided were utility-funded and government-backed, with £605,000 provided by ECO funding. In total, the project at a cost of £1.3 million was funded by a mixture of ECO, Net Zero and Client Contribution funding.

Our successful application for funding from the Scottish Government’s Social Housing Net Zero Fund enabled the installation of energy efficiency measures such as high-heat-retention storage heaters and battery storage.

Effective delivery of contractor design to achieve employers’ requirements

Our fully in-house retrofit team ensured that robust retrofit surveys were conducted alongside technical surveys, allowing us to recommend the optimal mixture of energy efficiency measures in a controlled, safe, and quality manner.

During the assessment and design stage, our retrofit team, led by our Retrofit Coordinator and Compliance Manager ensured that the works being completed and designed were in line with PAS 2030 and 2035 requirements. They took information from the assessment to be able to put the design together to fit Hanover’s requirements.

Methods employed to ensure delivery on time and to budget

Working closely with the architects and having full access to their drawings, our retrofit installation teams provided their input on the designs – highlighting any queries before attending the site. This meant that our team were already familiar with the measures being installed before commencing the works.

Monthly progress meetings were chaired by our contracts manager, inviting Hanover’s project delivery team and all other contractors working on the project, facilitating close collaboration and ensuring delivery on time and on budget.

Project management to achieve requirements for successful delivery

During works, a designated site manager carried out a weekly review of project works. Quality inspections and randomised H&S inspections were conducted to ensure works were being completed to a high quality and safe standard.

Following these inspections, a report with any issues and required actions was compiled and issued and our team ensured that appropriate adjustments were made.

We store pre-and post-install EPCs on our tailored job management system to manage appropriate resourcing and ensure these are deployed effectively, a process that helped us to ensure successful delivery for this project.

KPIs agreed and actualised / delivered

All installation works were supervised and checked for quality assurance by our site manager, contracts manager and H&S manager. Once ready, these were reviewed and signed off by Hanover’s appointed project manager. After sign-off, monthly progress meetings would review all completed works and review the monthly valuation and costs ensuring that we actualised and delivered on Hanover’s KPI’s

This is demonstrated by the fact that the Energy Report rating of properties improved from an ‘F’ to a ‘B’ across the whole project. Since project completion, residents at Hanover have enjoyed impressive improvements to their properties, causing them to make significant savings on their energy bills.

Community benefits

This estate was scheduled for demolition and through tenant engagement and knowledge of funding streams we were able to complete whole house retrofits of the properties, helping residents to significantly reduce their energy bills and saving the estate from demolition. Meaning residents who had lived here for decades were no longer faced with having to pack up their homes and move to a new location.