The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has launched a new toolkit to support housing providers with ‘Embedding Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in Housing Retrofit’
Author: Anusha Shanmuganantha, Project Lead, Turner & Townsend (with input from DESNZ)
DESNZ is responsible for the management of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) and Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) – Government funded programmes which support the installation of energy efficiency upgrades and low-carbon heating measures to homes in England, helping to tackle fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions.
Throughout the delivery of these programmes, it has become clear that there is a lack of EDI in the construction sector generally, specifically in the retrofit and sustainability sectors. Ensuring that EDI is embedded in housing retrofit is essential to attract diverse talent to organisations, cater to the diverse needs of residents from different backgrounds, and ensure effective solutions to complex challenges impacting residents’ lives.
In order to help raise awareness and address these issues, DESNZ commissioned Turner & Townsend (the Delivery Partner for SHDF & HUG) to develop a toolkit for registered providers of social housing, local authorities, and other stakeholders, to support them with the following:
Organisations can also use the EDI Maturity Assessment Tool within the toolkit to help develop a bespoke and meaningful EDI strategy for their retrofit projects. The case studies included throughout the toolkit will help set clear targets and strategies for monitoring and measuring their progress across the full retrofit project journey.
The full toolkit can be found here on the Social Housing Retrofit Accelerator (SHRA) website – our free specialist support service to improve the knowledge and capability of prospective SHDF & HUG applicants.
If you have any questions or are interested in finding out more about this work, please contact Anusha.Shanmuganantha@turntown.co.uk