Leicester City Council

• Leicester City Council aims for the city and local authority to become net zero through its Climate Ready Leicester Plan.
• The council is offering free, personalised retrofit advice through its Warm Home Survey and advice service.
• Our Homewise tool helped Leicester reach more people by making the service faster and easier to access.
• The tool also provides Leicester with data to target its marketing efforts.

Leicester is home to around 368,581 people.

The council declared a climate emergency in 2019. It worked on its first action plan for the climate emergency between 2020 and 2023.

In September 2024, the council launched a new, five-year action plan, the Climate Ready Leicester plan. The plan sets out more than 90 actions to help the city reduce its carbon emissions and adapt to a changing climate.

Housing generates a third of Leicester’s carbon emissions. Around a quarter of Leicester’s homes have an energy performance rating of E or below and another 40% have a D rating.

To address this, the council has included a city-wide programme of energy efficiency retrofit in its Climate Ready Leicester Plan. One way it’s delivering this is through the Warm Home Survey project.

The project offers home retrofit surveys and impartial, personalised advice to homeowners and private tenants in Leicester. This helps residents upgrade their homes to reduce energy bills, lower carbon emissions, and make their homes warmer and more comfortable.

Initially, retrofit surveys were carried out in person by council staff. However, this was challenging because:

• It took approximately 18.5 hours to complete each survey (including a three-hour survey at the property and desk-based research and a report write up).
• Surveys could only take place during standard office hours, which limited the number of people who could book them.

This meant Leicester couldn’t offer the service to as many people as it wanted, completing 56 surveys in 2024.

Leicester needed a way to make its retrofit advice service faster, to reach more people. That’s where our Homewise tool has helped to streamline the process and increase uptake of the service.

Rather than requesting an in-person survey, residents complete an online survey using Homewise. They then get a personalised action plan with recommendations for their home in minutes.

By using Homewise to support its Warm Home Survey and advice service, Leicester has:

• Reduced operational costs compared to an in-person service.
• Opened up the service to more people, as residents can use Homewise any time of day.
• Increased efficiency and freed up staff time by providing all the information residents need in one place.
• Reduced the need for individual support by directing users to grants advice and guidance through the tool.

Another benefit of Homewise is that it provides data on who is using the tool and where they are.

In the past the council has relied on blanket, city-wide marketing for its retrofit schemes. But this is expensive and offers low returns.

Now Leicester plans to use Homewise data to help with the marketing of the Warm Homes: Local Grant rolling out later in 2025.

By identifying areas in the city where lots of people have used Homewise, Leicester can focus its marketing efforts on residents who are already interested in retrofit.

Looking for support with your retrofit strategy? Speak to us today about how Homewise can help you.