Clarion named ‘best in class’ for social housing retrofit at industry awards

Clarion Housing Group, the UK’s largest housing association, has won a prestigious industry award recognising its excellence in delivering a landmark retrofit programme to improve the energy efficiency of hundreds of social homes.

The 125,000-home landlord has been working with council and supply chain partners since March 2021 as part of national Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) – through which it has been reducing carbon emissions and driving down energy bills in some of its hardest-to-heat homes in Fenland, Tonbridge and Malling, and the London Borough of Merton.

Clarion and partners won ‘Best Social Housing Retrofit Programme’ at the 2023 Retrofit Academy awards, which recognise the hard work and dedication in outstanding retrofit projects across the country.

Clarion is currently working with United Living, Bailey Garner and Equans to complete SHDF upgrades to 470 of its homes across Tonbridge & Malling, Fenland and Merton as part of the programme’s first wave.

Paul Norman, Director of Strategic Asset Management at Clarion Housing Group, said:

“We are absolutely thrilled to win this award given the competition and the industry-leading judging panel.

“We are very proud to drive decarbonisation within our sector and create a platform to collaborate with partners and share lessons learned – all vital for seeding the supply chain to help the country retrofit at scale and journey towards net zero.”

Clarion is awaiting the outcome of its bid for the SHDF’s second wave of funding, which if successful will enable it to upgrade a further 5,300 homes across the country.

This follows its success in securing funding in partnership with Fenland District Council for the 2021 pilot phase, as well as a subsequent funding award of £5.2m last year for the SHDF first wave.