On 28th January 2009 the Prime Minister and Lord Drayson announced Retrofit for the Future, £10 million of funding from the Technology Strategy Board to address the challenge of housing refurbishment, as detailed in the Government's Heat and Energy Saving Strategy. 

This competition will contribute to finding radical, innovative solutions to the housing refurbishment challenge and will invest £10 million in funding at least 50 retrofit demonstrators within the existing social housing stock.  The demonstrators will represent a range of build types and will be drawn from various geographical locations. 

The competition will open in June 2009 and will be delivered through the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) that is now managed by the Technology Strategy Board, this enables 100% funding for the planned demonstrators.  The programme is supported by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

The Modern Built Environment KTN, along with regional partners, will be running a series of free project brokering workshops, aimed at bringing together consortia to take part in this competition.  The workshops will take place as follows:

• Scotland
  Wednesday 22nd April 2009, 9.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m.

Trades Hall of Glasgow, 85 Glassfield Street, Glasgow, G1 1UH

In partnership with Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Construction Centre

• East Midlands
  Tuesday 5th May 2009, 9.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m.

Nottingham University, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD

In partnership with East Midland Sustainable Construction i-Net

• London
  Thursday 7th May 2009, 9.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m.

BERR Conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET

In partnership with BERR

• Wales
  Friday 15th May 2009, 9.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m.
  University of Glamorgan Conference Centre, Pontypridd, Wales, CF37 1DL

In partnership with Welsh Assembly Government

• Northern Ireland
  Friday 22nd May 2009, 9.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m.
  Belmont Tower, 82 Church Road, Belfast, BT4 3FG

Please see http://www.regonline.co.uk/retrofit_for_the_futurefor more details and to register.