A Yorkshire social housing consortium has helped shape new guidance for housing associations and local authorities on using retrofit procurement to create local jobs, tackle green skills shortages, strengthen supply chains and diversify the workforce.

The Greener Homes and Good Local Jobs Procurement Guidance is the result of a research project exploring how better procurement practices can maximise social value, particularly employment and skills, through social housing retrofit.
It has been produced by climate solutions charity Ashden in partnership with Yorkshire-based social housing consortium Efficiency North, the National Retrofit Hub and UK Green Building Council.

Its launch comes as an estimated 140,000 construction vacancies were reported in 2025, with shortages across roles including retrofit coordinators and assessors, heat pump installers, insulation specialists and multi-trade workers. Around a third of the workforce is also expected to retire by 2035.

The project, funded by the MCS Foundation, began in September 2025 and draws on discussions with more than 100 retrofit sector practitioners, including housing associations and local authorities, contractors, framework providers and Mayoral Strategic Authorities.

Retrofit is not simply an opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of homes, it's also an opportunity to invest in the people and communities delivering that transformation.

For housing providers, addressing local skills shortages can help support better-quality delivery and more resilient programmes, while also creating opportunities for their own residents. The procurement guidance provides practical advice on how to build this into procurement, with the flexibility to deliver different types of social value and consider it from the outset and throughout the contract lifecycle.

The guidance sets out practical ways for housing commissioners to embed employment and skills outcomes throughout the procurement process, from setting objectives and selecting frameworks to supplier selection, contract management and enforcement.

It also highlights the need to put the right processes in place to deliver and measure social value from the outset, rather than treating it as a tick-box exercise once contracts are awarded.

The launch follows the Government’s updated PPN 026 Social Value Model, published in August 2026, which places greater emphasis on good jobs, skills and local opportunities in public procurement. The model will apply to covered procurements of £1m or more by central government bodies from 1 January 2027 and will be considered good practice for social housing providers.

The document highlights EN:Procure, the procurement arm of Efficiency North, as an example of how social value can be embedded into procurement. Its ESG model requires contractors to deliver one ESG unit per £50,000 of contract spend, supporting outcomes including training, apprenticeships and new employment opportunities.

Cara Jenkinson, head of cities at Ashden, said: “Home decarbonisation is a major opportunity for housing providers to address skills shortages while delivering warmer, more efficient homes, but procurement needs to be used strategically to make this happen.

“By building jobs, training and apprenticeships into retrofit programmes from the outset, commissioners can strengthen their supply chains, improve programme resilience and reduce the risks associated with skills shortages. The guidance shows how social value can be built into procurement in a practical and flexible way, rather than being an afterthought."

The full Greener Homes and Good Local Jobs Procurement Guidance is available at https://ashden.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Ashden_Retrofit_futures_2026.pdf