We want our homes to be warmer, safer, and more affordable to live in. Our goal is to improve the health and wellbeing of customers while helping to lower their living costs.
Over the next few years, we’ll review all our homes to ensure they are energy efficient and ready for the future. This is important because about 40% of harmful carbon emissions come from how homes are built, heated, and lived in.
We’ll explore ways to make homes warmer and reduce energy use through improvements called "retrofit" works. Retrofits involve upgrading existing homes with new measures, like insulation and energy-efficient heating, rather than adding these features during construction.
What retrofit work might mean for your home
SNG is proud to lead one of the largest retrofit programmes in the country. Improvements we could make include:
- adding insulation to keep heat inside your home
- installing new, energy-efficient doors and windows
- fitting advanced heating systems, like Air Source Heat Pumps
- adding solar panels and batteries to generate and store renewable energy.
These changes can make your home cheaper to heat, help reduce your energy bills, and lower carbon emissions - benefiting both you and the planet.
In some cases, if homes are outdated, they may need replacing, or we might redevelop an entire area.
How we decide what’s best
Different homes need different solutions. For example, a one-bedroom flat in town has different energy needs to a three-bedroom house in a rural area with no gas supply. That’s why we:
- assess different types of homes to see which are most suitable for retrofitting - and which are least energy-efficient
- use surveys and energy modelling to decide the best mix of upgrades for each type of home.
How we’ll work with you
If your home is selected for retrofitting because we think it's suitable and a priority (or because it makes sense to carry out work to a number of homes in the same area at the same time), our expert partners will visit to carry out detailed surveys.
These surveys help us plan the right mix of improvements for your home - now or over the next few years. Customers told us in our research that this personalised approach is very important.
Our Resident Liaison Officers will guide you through the entire process. They’ll explain what’s happening, how the changes will benefit you, and how to use any new technology, like smart heating systems, to help save on bills. We estimate that some households could cut their energy costs by as much as half.
After the upgrades, we’ll monitor your home’s performance to check its energy efficiency and make sure everything is working well. This includes looking at factors like air quality and ventilation, to ensure your home is as comfortable and healthy as possible.
Watch the animation below to find out more about our approach to meeting net zero for existing homes.
Read a transcript of the Energy efficiency improvements to our homes video [pdf, 96KB] 
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