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Community buildings in climate action

The outside of an old church turned community building

We look at the crucial role of community buildings in climate action.

Community buildings are facing a crisis. Soaring energy bills are threatening the future of these vital spaces – from village halls to community centres – where people gather for warm hubs, youth clubs and food banks. Many groups running these buildings feel overwhelmed by rising costs and building maintenance challenges which they feel ill-equipped to tackle.

At the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), we’ve seen first hand how targeted support and funding for appropriate, energy-efficient building improvements, usually known as retrofit can transform these spaces, ensuring they continue to serve their communities while contributing to our net zero climate goals.

Community buildings face more than just rising costs

Many community organisations want to make their buildings work better for them – including improving how energy efficient they are, but they feel stuck.

We repeatedly heard about common challenges from the communities we worked with through the Big Local programme as the climate support partner.

In 2011, Big Local gave £1m to 150 communities across England that had very little lottery funding. The funding was ‘no strings attached’ as long as it was used to address local needs and priorities. Many wanted to improve their buildings.

Jean Peasley, a local resident and partnership member from Marsh and Micklefield Big Local told us: “Our community centre was often difficult and expensive to heat. Users complained of it being cold, which risked driving them away when they needed our services most.”

A perfect storm of challenges

Common threads among the groups we spoke to included;

  1. Escalating energy prices threatening their financial viability.
  2. Increased demand for their services, especially as warm hubs.
  3. Lack of expertise in navigating complex retrofit (energy efficient building improvements) options.
  4. Limited funding for energy efficiency improvements.

CSE’s approach to creating resident-led change

Through our work as Big Local’s climate support partner and our Resilient Communities project, we’ve developed a model that works:

  1. Personalised support: We provide hands-on guidance, from initial building assessments to implementation.
  2. Capacity building: We empower community leaders with the knowledge to make informed decisions.
  3. Long-term partnership: Our support extends beyond one-off interventions, ensuring sustained impact.

Jean’s team, with our support, secured funding for new windows and additional roof insulation, significantly improving their building’s energy efficiency. “CSE’s advice is practical and achievable. Their support is resulting in real, positive changes in our community building’s energy efficiency – changes we hope to replicate across other local spaces in Marsh and Micklefield in the future as we now understand much more about what’s needed for our building retrofit journeys.”

Capacity support for energy efficiency improvements

Our Resilient Communities project, supported by Power to Change, allowed us to work closely with community businesses facing complex retrofit challenges.

Many of these community organisations faced similar challenges to Jean such as a lack of knowledge about the building’s structure and heating systems, damp issues or essential maintenance problems like leaking roofs and gutters.

Many were also unable to get clarity on their energy bills and found it hard to know how to reduce their energy bills without reducing their services.

One example is our collaboration with the Trinity Centre in Bristol, a Grade II* listed former Georgian Church hosting diverse community activities. Despite previous energy-saving efforts, including solar panel installations, Trinity faced ongoing challenges with their building and systems:

Our approach with Trinity, as with all our community partners, involved:

  1. Detailed assessments: We supported them to use thermal imaging to identify insulation gaps and ventilation issues.
  2. Expert connections: We linked Trinity with a Historic England specialist for tailored advice for the listed building.
  3. Ongoing support: We provided regular check-ins and collaborative problem-solving over several months.

This experience reinforced our belief that community building retrofit is a complex, long-term process requiring sustained support and peer learning opportunities.

Common challenges and the need for support

Investing in community isn’t just about reducing energy bills; it’s about:

Our insights are highlighted in a recent report by New Local which shows investing in and partnering with community businesses can be an effective and cost-efficient way of delivering multiple outcomes and priorities, particularly in marginalised and deprived communities.

We talk to groups who regularly feel like there is not enough support for them to take on these projects and that the variation and range of professional support is difficult to engage with.

A retrofit project can involve a number of tradespeople and professionals including, plumbers, electricians, heating engineers, conservation officers, architects and planners. All this can make even planning a retrofit project seem daunting. 

There is also a big gap in bringing all of the considerations of a community building retrofit project together. A recent government report highlights that “Currently there is no formal training out there that brings together heritage, sustainability and retrofit”, so it’s not surprising that community organisations feel unsupported and find it hard to get started.

The path forward

To truly empower communities in retrofit and climate action, we need a shift in how we approach funding:

  1. Recognise the complexity: Improvements to community buildings takes time, involves multiple stakeholders, and requires diverse expertise.
  2. Provide comprehensive support: Funding should cover not just physical improvements but also capacity building within community organisations and long-term guidance.
  3. Invest in long-term partnerships: One-off grants are not enough. We need sustained support to see projects through from conception to completion.

At CSE, we’re committed to bridging the gap between communities and the expertise they need. We offer tools like energy audits, solar potential assessments, and tailored guidance documents. But to scale this impact, we need funders who understand that retrofitting, repairing and maintaining community buildings is more than a quick fix—it’s an investment in the future of our communities.

By supporting retrofit of community buildings, it’s not just about funding energy efficiency; it’s an investment in the resilience, sustainability, and vitality of communities. Together, we can ensure that these crucial spaces continue to serve and inspire for generations to come.

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