Ashden urges longer retrofit contracts to build heat pump installer skills
UK – Councils and housing associations should use longer retrofit contracts and active contract management to build local heat pump installer skills, according to new procurement guidance from climate solutions charity Ashden.
The Greener homes and good local jobs guide, launched by project partner Efficiency North, is intended for organisations procuring home-decarbonisation work. It advises commissioners to set local employment and skills objectives before procurement, then carry them through market engagement, tendering, mobilisation, performance monitoring and enforcement.
Ashden recommends appointing a named coordinator for these commitments and setting escalation routes where contractors do not deliver agreed outcomes. The guidance was developed with EN:Communities, UK Green Building Council and the National Retrofit Hub, with funding from the MCS Foundation.
The guide identifies heat pump installers as one of the significant skills gaps facing the social housing sector, alongside retrofit coordinators and assessors, insulation specialists and multi-trade operatives. Ashden cites Communities that Work research commissioned by the Housing, Growth and Green Jobs Alliance, which included survey respondents representing 800,000 homes.
Ashden argues that contracts lasting three years or more give clients and contractors more certainty to establish apprenticeships, reskill existing trades and create a sustained workforce pipeline. Suggested measures include developing retrofit content within existing trade apprenticeships and helping plumbers and electricians move towards air source heat pump work.
For an illustrative three-year decarbonisation programme covering 3,000 homes, Ashden models an average requirement for 16 full-time-equivalent heat pump installer roles, alongside 20 insulation installers, 15 solar and battery installers and six ventilation installers. The figure is scenario modelling based on external industry data, rather than an outcome from a completed programme.
Ashden says a locally trained workforce can help reduce delivery risk, costs and defects in retrofit programmes. The guide also encourages commissioners to consider how small and medium-sized firms can participate in delivery and to make skills commitments part of routine contract management rather than a standalone social-value exercise.
The guidance draws on the government’s PPN 026 Social Value Model. That policy applies directly to qualifying central-government procurements started from 1 January 2027, rather than being mandatory for councils or housing associations. The government’s Warm Homes Plan estimates the UK has about 4,000 full-time-equivalent heat pump installers and will require approximately 12,000 by 2030.
