The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) offers an independent, impartial and bespoke service to help community buildings become more energy efficient and improve comfort for the people using them.

This is a paid-for consultancy support package in which we help the managers of community facilities such as village halls, churches, community centres and similar public spaces make their buildings cheaper to run, lower impact and more resilient to the changing climate. Our service covers old, listed and new buildings.

All of our surveys follow a whole-building approach and include an assessment of building fabric, heating, lighting, ventilation, occupancy patterns and potential for low carbon energy sources. They are carried out by two experienced members of our team, and usually take between 2-3 hours. Ideally our surveys are carried out alongside a representative from the building we are assessing, as this builds a greater understanding and leads to better outcomes for all involved.

The support from CSE has been the first important step in a long journey to fixing up our hall. Without it we wouldn’t know where to start or what type of funding we’ll need to apply for. 

Rhian, member of Chew Stoke village hall committee

What will it cost?

We appreciate that community buildings come in all shapes and sizes and the support required is often different; this makes it challenging to offer one fixed price, so we have three different offers: a light survey, an intermediate survey and an in-depth survey.

When travelling to carry out a survey, there is an additional price for travel time and cost (from Bristol).

Light survey (from £1,200 + VAT)

This offer is usually best suited to those who are either just starting out and want help with first steps, or where you already have a number of surveys and audits and are looking for someone informed and impartial to make sense of them.

• Initial online meeting to discuss needs and motivations.
• Visual condition assessment.
• Energy efficiency and carbon reduction assessment.
• Assessment of local climate and weather-related risks.
• Indoor air-quality assessment.
• Overview of building services.
• Review of energy use and costs.
• Interview with building manager.
• Solutions to tackle common problems, such as damp and mould.
• Light-touch report of observations and recommendations.
• Follow up meeting to review findings and suggest next steps.

Intermediate survey (from £2,040 + VAT)

This offer is usually best suited to those who would benefit from further guidance on the recommended next steps, or for those who want an extensive written report.

• Everything in the light survey (listed above).
• Draft report with the observations and suggested next steps issued for consideration.
• Follow up meeting to review findings.
• In-depth report with observations, recommendations, suggested next steps, and guidance on costs and potential savings.

In-depth survey (price on application)

This survey is for those planning major improvements and seeking ongoing, long-term support from our advisors.

We understand that every community building is unique, with its own opportunities and challenges and so this tier is designed to allow us to work closely with you, drawing on our flexible and wide-ranging services to best meet your needs. If you have questions or want to talk through what you’re hoping to achieve, get in touch and we’d be happy to discuss how we can help.

Optional extras

On top of the three tiers of survey that we offer, we can also provide these optional extras which are charged per hour. Be sure to let us know if anything interests you when you reach out to our team.

• Longer term follow-up support.
• In-door air quality assessment.
• Help creating a maintenance plan.
• Workshops for staff and building users.
• U-value calculation.
• Air-tightness testing where appropriate.
• Help engaging with designers and installers.
• Reviewing quotations.
• Calculating operational carbon emission.
• High level recommendations with simple return on investment calculations.
• Wider scope of emissions from a groups activity.

The impact to the community is huge if we can make the hall more energy efficient because it will keep it going financially in the longer-term.

Rhian, member of Chew Stoke village hall committee

How to book your community building energy survey

All community buildings are unique – like the organisations that look after them – and so the range of support we can provide is very varied. To find out more, or to ask for a quote, please get in touch at communitybuildings@cse.org.uk.

We’ll be pleased to have a no-obligation chat to help you make a decision. We always give an honest appraisal and help you to better understand your options.