Lessons from the Borders: A collaborative cross RSL-approach to retrofit planning and delivery
This webinar explored how three major registered social landlords in the Scottish Borders worked together with Changeworks and wider regional partners to develop a shared, data-led approach to retrofit planning.
This collaboration between Changeworks, Scottish Borders, Eildon and Berwickshire Housing Associations is significant because these organisations collectively represent a substantial proportion of the area’s social housing stock. The Scottish Borders is a local authority area where the council itself does not own social housing.
The project aimed to support collective decision-making by identifying common archetypes; suitable retrofit and clean heat measures; likely investment requirements; opportunities for cross-RSL delivery, and priorities for future funding, procurement and delivery planning.
The core technical work involved bringing together housing association stock data, EPC data and home analytics information into a common baseline. Changeworks corrected the data where known improvements had already been made, assigned properties to archetypes, identified suitable measures, and modelled two Social Housing Net Zero Standard scenarios. Outputs included address-level modelling of costs, heat retention changes, tenant fuel bill savings and carbon savings.
The results were brought together in a Power BI report, enabling the partners to explore the data by housing association, archetype, location, fuel type, off-gas status, costs and potential tenant benefits. Each housing association also received its own detailed report and an updatable spreadsheet, helping them use the analysis internally while retaining ownership of their data.
The project combined analysis with structured internal and external workshops. The internal workshop brought together asset management, finance, procurement, sustainability and tenant wellbeing perspectives to build consensus across organisations and reduce siloed thinking. Common priorities included optimising funding through collaboration, building local air source heat pump skills and supply chains, engaging suppliers, identifying pilot projects, incorporating retrofit into long-term business planning, developing tenant engagement, and creating a shared statement of intent.
The external workshop involved regional partners including South of Scotland Enterprise, Scottish Borders Council and the Centre for Net Zero High Density Buildings. Their role was to explore how wider partners could support the RSLs’ goals, including through funding support, alignment with LHEES and Area Based Schemes, skills development, project evaluation and supply chain engagement. A key conclusion was that prioritisation should be flexible and need-led, shaped by external opportunities but grounded in homes that are harder to treat, at higher fuel poverty risk, or located off the gas grid.
From the housing associations’ perspective, the process highlighted the value of shared data, regular collaboration and cross-organisational trust. It also showed that data alone does not immediately identify delivery-ready projects: partners still need to test data quality, align stock analysis with asset investment plans, develop common criteria, and understand where individual RSL priorities overlap.
Key lessons from the discussion were that collaborative retrofit planning takes time, but existing forums and relationships can shorten the lead-in. Furthermore, early data sharing and trust-building are essential for such a project to be successful.
The agreed next step is for each RSL to develop a pro forma setting out its strategic focus, delivery constraints, investment priorities and potential five-year project pipeline. These will then be compared to identify areas of overlap, shape future collaborative projects, support funding bids and develop a clearer regional statement of intent for retrofit delivery in the Scottish Borders.