Recipient organisationCity of York CouncilSource-published name: City of York Council
Funding£3.4M
PeriodMar 2024 — Nov 2025
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
York homeowners will soon be able to access a single service that handles every step of making their homes more energy efficient—from initial advice and financing to installation and follow-up. This project tackles a stubborn problem: even when grants and technologies exist, most homeowners don’t take up retrofit offers because the process is fragmented, confusing, and hard to navigate. The earlier Phase 1 study found that the real barriers are not technical but practical and social—people don’t know whom to trust, how to pay, or where to start. The Retrofit One-Stop-Shop York combines digital tools, tailored training, bespoke financing, and demonstrator homes into one seamless service for the city. If successful, the scheme could make homes warmer, cheaper to heat, and safer—especially for vulnerable households currently living with cold, drafts, and damp. It also aims to grow the local low-carbon supply chain, creating jobs and investment. Crucially, the project will produce a “One-Stop-Shop-in-a-Box Toolkit” that other UK towns and cities can replicate, drastically cutting the time and cost of setting up similar services elsewhere. This is applied research with a direct, near-term impact on housing, energy bills, and public health.
View original technical description
Our Phase 1 project, Accelerating York's Net Zero Transition identified significant non-technical barriers to consumer acceptance and uptake of retrofit and low carbon technologies. This proposal directly builds on those findings, by combining innovative approaches to place-based engagement, digital tools and data systems, tailored training and advice bespoke financing solutions, demonstrator homes and dissemination into a single end-to-end Retrofit-One-Stop-Shop for York. The project brings together partners specialising in each element of delivery into a collaboration that will greatly accelerate the development of an area based Retrofit-One-Stop-Shop, improving the householder experience of retrofit and contributing to better energy efficiency standards of all building archetypes across the city. Homes will be warmer and cheaper to heat with complimentary technologies to maximise energy efficiency and mobility options. The project directly benefits our community with financial savings and health and wellbeing benefits. It also supports growth in the local low carbon supply chain, generating opportunities for new investment and job creation. The One-Stop-Shop service will be available to all residents and tenure types, but specifically support vulnerable and disadvantaged groups by addressing issues with fuel poverty and homes that are unsafe due to cold, drafts and damp. The scheme will be supporting the ambitions of the York Climate Change Strategy, Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Economic Development Strategy, as well as contributing to regional and national targets for net zero. It will provide a replicable and scalable model for expansion into other areas of UK, offering the One-Stop-Shop-In-a-Box Toolkit, drastically reducing the time and cost associated with other area-based One-Stop-Shops.
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