Decision details

To accept the tender to appoint the organisation LivGreen to deliver professional retrofit services. The tender is within budget and exceeds £100,000. The contract will include retrofit coordination, retrofit assessment, retrofit design & installation of energy efficiency measures to ensure the capital works delivered meet the relevant specification (PAS 2035: Retrofitting dwellings for improved energy efficiency1), a requirement if CBC is to receive the grant funding.

The Council is entering into a contract to deliver carbon reduction works in-line with the specification (PAS 2035). This work supports the Authority’s declaration of a Climate Emergency in 2019 and its commitment to become net-zero carbon by 2030. It allows for works under the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund: Wave 3 to be delivered across more than 400 properties, which has already been signed off by Cabinet.

Because of the time constraints put in place by central government for this grant and the urgency to begin works, the process of appointing LivGreen will be completed via direct award through a procurement framework called Procurement for Housing (PfH).


Background information:
Earlier this year, CBC was successful in its bid to receive grant funding under the Warm Homes Social Housing Fund, enabling it to deliver energy efficiency and retrofit measures to 425 CBC owned properties from 2025-2028 at a total project value of £7,040,446.22.

These government funded works are held to very high retrofit standards, and as such, must be completed in compliance with British Standards Institution PAS2035:2023 Retrofitting Dwellings for Improved Energy Efficiency2. This dictates that any retrofit project carried out under the standard must be overseen by a retrofit coordinator who will be responsible for ensuring all specifications within the standard are followed, and eventually sign the project off under Trustmark, the government-recognised body for construction quality. They will also ensure that the retrofit designs are suitable for individual dwellings, considering specific characteristics for each property as well as hold installers to account for their work and ensure that designs are followed.

It was identified that a new retrofit coordinator would be needed to take on the project, as the current retrofit coordinator contract that we have in place will expire in early 2026 with no desire from CBC to extend this contract.

The value of the proposed contract will be £1.2m. This includes Retrofit Coordination services and installation of energy efficiency measures such as cavity wall insulation and loft insulation.

Cabinet decision 08/04/2025: Decision to accept Warm Homes Social Housing Fund Grant of £3.688 million offered by DESNZ is agreed.

The council considered two alternative options:

- providing project management services in-house
- the current retrofit coordinator contract could be extended

It was determined that contracting a third party would provide the necessary skills, resource and capabilities needed and be lower risk.