Retiring Director Rob Cartwright reflects on his 14 years at Cotality and the evolution of the UK retrofit sector. While energy data has shifted from a barrier to a driver of investment, he notes that short-term government funding cycles and a lack of cross-party consensus continue to stall progress. As the industry transitions from EPCs to the Home Energy Model, Rob Cartwright emphasises that independent oversight and integrity remain essential to successfully raising housing standards.
Career & background
You've spent a significant part of your career at what is now Cotality. What drew you here originally, and what kept you?
"In 2012 I was at e.on running trials for Green Deal Finance, the government scheme that let people borrow money for energy efficiency improvements and pay it back through their electricity bill. I wanted a change, and my background in software development and a MSc from the Centre for Alternative Technology meant I wanted to expand my work on innovation in the energy efficiency sector. Joining Cotality, then known as eTech, was the perfect opportunity. I'd known Jim and David Driver for years, from my time running a One Stop Shop for the London Mayor, and was aware of their work on mobile platforms and energy performance assessments."
How has understanding of energy efficiency as a data problem evolved over that time?
"In any industry workshop a decade ago you’d have heard that people couldn’t get started with retrofit due to lack of data. Now energy efficiency data is powering decisions, investment planning, carbon emission reporting and quality assurance. The information barrier has been broken. But we’ve kept moving – Cotality’s acquisition of Parity Projects in 2024 meant we could add housing stock analysis to our suite of services, and now offer climate risk analysis, machine learning of damp and mould risk and 360° imagery, with the team bringing some exciting new developments to market over the coming year.”
What's the piece of work from your time here that you're most proud of, and why?
"The rollout for British Gas. They used to have their own in-house installation teams, mainly boiler replacement, loft and cavity wall insulation, so when ECO was introduced, they were fulfilling their obligation largely through their own workforce. The product I'd developed with eTech evolved into the solution we built for British Gas: a mobile iPad app for home surveys that captured the data needed for an EPC, calculated the energy rating, and then modelled what installing additional ECO measures – such as loft insulation and cavity wall insulation - would do to that rating and its value. At the same time, we spotted a market opportunity: every supplier had to track delivery, so we built ECO Hub to support Obligated Suppliers to manage, track and report their progress against their obligation targets through the supply chain as well as in-house delivery.
I'm equally proud of our Retrofit Coordination services. When PAS 2035 was introduced and mandated under ECO, we saw the opportunity and developed PAS Hub software and related services. The biggest challenge in this market has been – and remains – the stop-start nature of funding, and changing eligibility requirements. Our service provides flexibility and independent oversight, while the software helps projects deliver against requirements, by embedding data and processes in a clear workflow with related mobile and desktop software. This saves clients’ time and money, and gives a clear audit trail of decisions made to support consumer protection."
On the regulatory landscape
MEES 2030 is now a firm deadline for the BTL sector. From where you're sitting, how seriously are lenders and landlords treating it versus how seriously they should be?
"The well-informed ones are treating it seriously, but there's still a lack of understanding out there of the deadlines and the measures needed to meet them. BTL lenders are fairly switched on as a group, but there’s a risk they are missing the opportunity to provide advice early that would save landlords’ time, money and hassle."
EPCs have been criticised for years as a blunt instrument. What's your honest assessment: are they fit for purpose as a compliance mechanism, and what do you hope the Home Energy Model changes?
"EPCs aren't always accurate, but they've also been relied on for far more than they were ever designed. An EPC is an asset rating. It tells you the relative efficiency of the property, not how a household lives in it. I don't think the Home Energy Model changes that fundamentally. It's a new calculation methodology, but it's still based on building physics and theoretical. This is appropriate for many decisions in the sector where we want to make improvements to the property that endure beyond the current inhabitants, but not others – policy-makers, advice providers and others need to understand the difference"
Retrofit funding has been through multiple iterations under different governments. How much policy continuity is there really in the retrofit agenda, and how does that uncertainty affect the market's ability to plan?
"Funding is extremely cyclical because it's so politically influenced. The Warm Homes Plan is new in name, but there have been equivalents before it under every government, with significant changes even under successive governments of the same party. Policy tends to run on a two-to-four-year outlook, with changes in funding, eligibilty criteria and the measures supported. Each change means additional cost – retraining, data collection and analysis, and consumer engagement. There's no five-to-ten-to-twenty year strategic plan, and that's a real problem for skills and communication. A lot of attention is given to jobs in energy-intensive sectors, where a few hundred jobs grab headlines – retrofit is an opportunity to deliver job opportunities in every community but that will only happen with consistency in support from government, financial and non-financial."
On the EPC-performance gap
There's been a lot of discussion about the gap between EPC ratings and how a property actually performs in practice. How significant a problem is that, and does the Home Energy Model do enough to address it?
"How significant it is depends on what you're using it for, and this is often the issue: the EPC was introduced as an asset rating for a home based on assumptions about occupancy and usage, and as such will never reflect the actual energy usage & bills for an individual household, but that was never the intent. Just like a new car that claims to achieve 50mpg (or MPGe), these ratings allow us to compare relative efficiency when considering different properties as we do with models of cars.
Will HEM address this? It depends on what you're trying to address, and I think again this is where the problem lies, the EPC has been used in too many ways that it was never intended for, and that needs to be recognised and addressed with the future use of the Home Energy Model.
One thing coming that will address the performance gap is SMETERs, a mechanism to accurately measure the real energy performance of a home, shifting away from theoretical models to measurable, real-world outcome. The key here will be verification though, there are already multiple SMETER solutions out there, but their output is limited and there is no baseline against which to verify their accuracy, so this could become the Wild West of energy efficiency if we're not careful."
On professionalisation
PAS 2035 and the Retrofit Coordinator role were designed to raise standards across the sector. Has that happened in practice, or is there still a quality and capacity problem on the ground?
"It has most definitely happened in practice, and I can see that from the contractors we've worked with through the RC Service we've developed and delivered successfully at scale, and this is one of the things I'm most proud of in my time here. However, this has not been reflected across the sector sadly, and one of the key reasons for this is the lack of separation within PAS 2035 between the contractor and Retrofit Coordinator. Far too many contractors have their own in-house RCs, and I think this always has to be questioned as they're effectively marking their own homework. I should caveat that not all contractors with in-house RCs deliver poor quality, but I think this is something that really needs addressing to take PAS 2035 to the next level in terms of raising standards."
Looking ahead
If you could change one thing about how the UK government has handled the retrofit agenda, what would it be?
"I'd want to see cross-party consensus on climate change and its policies, with a commitment to climate mitigation and adaptation in the housing sector planned ten to twenty years ahead rather than reset every time government changes,or even more frequently."
What do you think the industry will look like in ten years' time? Will MEES 2030 have done its job, or will we be having the same conversations?
"In the social housing sector, maybe. But what really matters is how it's actioned. There'll still be more to do, because there are some broad exemptions, superior landlords (ie the freeholders) are not yet engaged, and climate resilience is not yet embedded in EPCs or Decent Homes Standards . It's a stepping stone, not the destination."
For someone starting out
What would you say to someone beginning a career in property and energy now? How much change can they actually influence?
"There are huge opportunities in this sector, and it's got a critical part to play in addressing the challenges of climate change and fuel poverty, and therefore so has anyone entering this sector.This was my motivation when entering the sector 20 years ago following a career change from various IT implementation and consultancy roles in the past. But you have to act with integrity; this is too serious a challenge not to. I pride myself on always having acted with integrity in every decision I've made and am equally proud and grateful that I always had the backing of Jim and David whenever I sought their opinion."
To close
You're leaving at what feels like a genuine inflection point. Is that good timing, or does part of you want to see it through?
"It's purely coincidental, but there is some irony that I joined eTech 14 years ago just as ECO (and Green Deal Finance) was being launched, and I now leave as ECO draws to a close. Equally, my first role in the sector was in the development of RdSAP and that too is now on its way out. I think the flexibility and granularity of the Home Energy Model is a welcome step forward but the end to nationally-available fuel poverty funding was a huge shame. The decision failed to distinguish between good and bad practice, results in a postcode lottery, and has set the sector back, at exactly the same time that we need it to grow. Jobs could have been protected through a swift pivot to independent oversight, better data-sharing with quality assurance services, and clearer responsibilities – all things I’ve advocated over the years. So I'd be lying if I said part of me didn't want to continue to contribute, but I will be contributing in different ways in my retirement through volunteering in the sustainability sector, and of course, never say never..."
What do you hope your successor and the broader team carry forward from the way you've approached this role?
"Continue to act with integrity, be responsive and agile, I am confident the team will be all those things and more as they continue to tackle and solve the challenges ahead."
And finally, what's next for you?
"Spending more time focused on my family, particularly spending more time with my son, which in part includes watching the resurgence of Wolves as a footballing super power 😉. At the same time, we are doing some renovation work on the house, getting a puppy, I'll be getting the garden under control, getting fit via more running, cycling and swimming, doing more cooking (whilst continuing to manage the dishwasher) and also volunteering work, in fact I'm already helping set up an Energy Local club for my local area with a local community owned renewable energy generator, and helping with a showing of the People’s Emergency Briefing. It has never been more vital that the public understand the urgency of climate and nature risks, and I’m always ready to have a discussion about the role of housing as part of the answer."
Best wishes, Rob, and thank you, from all of us at Cotality.
