Homes and Housing Advisory Board unveiled to champion healthy and resilient homes

Eleven built environment industry experts have been appointed to the new Homes and Housing Advisory Board convened by Connected Places Catapult.

Members of the group will lend their skills, guidance and knowledge to drive the Catapult’s housing innovation strategy. Together, the board will respond to the strategic priorities and challenges in the homes and housing marketplace, with the aim of delivering more resilient and robust homes that meet the needs of our society now and in the future. Areas of focus will include policy, health, skills, investment and technology.

The purpose of the group is to find ways to join up existing efforts to support the development of place-based approaches, with demonstrable outcomes for health and wellbeing of residents and climate resilience. The group is uniquely positioned to advance and increase access to innovation for places around the UK and provide a clear path to scaling up and replicating solutions.

The appointed members represent the views of various industry stakeholders including local authorities, innovators, traders, residents (including fuel poor and vulnerable people), and Government. The Advisory Board will meet quarterly.

“I am delighted to have this diverse membership and experience on our Homes and Housing Advisory Board. Over the last 20 years, significant efforts have gone into retrofitting homes in the UK to improve energy efficiency and health, but the sector is still highly fragmented.”

“We are hoping that this group will bring together existing knowledge and efforts to find tangible ways of accelerating action on retrofit for health and climate resilience, and advise on the Catapult’s areas of focus to shape this into a well-functioning market that meets the needs of our society today and into the future.”

Connected Places Catapult’s Executive Director, Dr Wolfgang Schuster

Members of the Homes & Housing Advisory Board are:

Rafe Bertram, Built Environment Sustainability Lead, Enfield Council

Carlotta Conte-Billant, TreesAI Lead, Dark Matter Labs

Nigel Donohue, Chief Executive, The Installation Assurance Authority and Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency

Sara Edmonds, Co-director, National Retrofit Hub

Richard Harding, Health and Social Housing Business Development Lead, UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (UKSTFC)

Holly Holder, Deputy Director for Homes, Centre for Ageing Better

Alastair Mumford, Programme Director, The MCS Foundation

Dr Kate Simpson, Associate Professor, Nottingham Trent University; Visiting Researcher, Imperial College London

Becci Taylor, Director, Building Decarbonisation and Resilience, Arup

Joanne Wheeler, Senior Local Policy & Retrofit Manager, UK Green Building Council

Guy Woodroffe, Head of Policy, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero