What was the project about?

Homebaked Community Land Trust (CLT) lies on the boundary of the wards of Anfield and Everton, Liverpool. It represents a growing group of local residents who have been working together since 2012 to shape the place where they live and work in community ownership.

With many homes in the area first built in the 1880s, the housing stock is in poor condition, while fuel poverty is double the national average. These issues have become more severe during the cost-of-living crisis.

Homebaked CLT is guided by the question ‘what does it mean to live well, now and for future generations?’. This means ensuring that homes are high-quality and affordable to local people, and creating an environment that provides good jobs, green space, and opportunities for communities to thrive. Homebaked CLT sees housing retrofit as one solution. Retrofit is making upgrades to your home to reduce energy consumption and cut the cost of bills, and to create warm and healthy homes.

Homebaked CLT has the ambition to create an area-based community-led housing retrofit scheme, working in partnership with local anchor agencies. Our action research asked the question:

• How can we achieve an efficient roll-out of whole-house retrofit across tenures in the neighbourhoods of Anfield and Everton, without leaving anyone behind?

What did we do?

Our action research involved both community engagement and community peer research.

We recruited a team of eight ‘energy champions’ (who were rooted in local organisations and charities) to help us to build awareness of, and demand for, retrofit in the area through hosting public workshops, pop-up stalls, a home energy party, a public film screening, and other creative engagement techniques.  

The research team was led by Dr Joshua Blamire and included three community researchers who are local residents of Anfield and Everton. The community researchers undertook research training to co-produce creative research questions and methods, and to conduct data collection and data analysis. We wanted to learn from local residents about how they were experiencing the rising cost of energy, and the measures that they were taking to stay warm. We also wanted to explore ideas about housing retrofit with the local community.

During January – September 2024, we’ve been speaking with local residents, community representatives, landlords, builders and contractors, and housing activists through one-to-one interviews as well as a variety of creative and participatory methods.

What did we find?

Energy: Many people are struggling to pay their bills. This is having a devastating impact on physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Housing: The older housing stock is in poor condition. We learned about a host of problems – damp, mould, draughts, and leaks – that demand upgrades to the housing infrastructure.

Retrofit: Although not a commonly understood term, some people in the area have already begun to enact change, such as installing loft, wall, or underfloor insulation, and have since seen cost benefits. However, for many people, there are still too many barriers.

Community: While people living in the area experience challenges, such as poverty and ill health, they also spoke of close bonds with their neighbours, a strong sense of community, and of the many valuable assets in the area (such as social enterprises, social spaces, charities and faith organisations). This shows potential for building a neighbourhood retrofit scheme that is led by the community and can bring about systemic and transformative change.

What next?

We are continuing to share our findings and to engage in dialogue with all those who have a stake in creating warm and cosy homes, from local residents, to neighbourhood and community organisations, the third sector, the public sector, local politicians, academics, and experts in housing retrofit.

We want to continue to work with communities to remove barriers to accessing housing retrofit. We recognise that this will involve deeper and more sustained community engagement, as well as support from partner agencies and politicians.

This research is the next step towards identifying a particular street in the local area to initiate the beginning of the community-led retrofit scheme which will ensure housing, energy, and climate security for future generations.

How can I find out more?

Check out the resources developed by the project team below:

• Our insights and learning report
• Our blog post and newspaper article exploring the research findings
• A blog post on capacity building with our local team
• A blog post discussing our showing of the community film Dampbusters
• A blog post reporting on our DIY Draughtproofing workshop with Carbon Co-op
• Special issue of the Homebaked CLT newspaper People Power

You can learn more about Homebaked CLT here.

If you are interested in learning more about the research, or hearing about next steps, get in touch with Rachael Branton (rachael.branton@homebaked.org.uk) or Dr Joshua Blamire (j.blamire@wlv.ac.uk).