Held on 1st April 2025 in Birmingham, the purpose of this event was to bring together LEAD project partners with the Hubs and DESNZ to share experiences and knowledge as LEAD projects drew to a close.
Resource
About the LEAD programme
The LEAD (Local Energy Advice Demonstrator) programme was established to test new and innovative approaches to providing in-person energy efficiency and clean heating advice to households in England at a local level. The projects focused on:
- Audiences most likely to benefit from in-person advice, such as offline and hard-to-reach consumers.
- Homes that are harder to retrofit, such as traditional and listed buildings, and homes in conservation areas.
The projects were funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and funding was delivered in partnership with the five regional Local Net Zero Hubs.
The LEAD National Conference
Tuesday 1 April 2025 at The Bond, Birmingham.
The purpose of this event was to bring together LEAD project partners with the Local Net Zero Hubs and DESNZ to share experiences and knowledge as projects drew to a close. A full list of projects and attendee organisations is provided at the end of the report. All five Local Net Zero Hubs worked together to facilitate and deliver the event, with South West Net Zero Hub taking a lead on planning and reporting.
The purpose of this report is to share learning. This event write-up cuts across the 15 sessions to summarise useful insights under 11 key themes. This approach is intended to combine findings across the whole event in a digestible form, rather than reporting on each session in isolation. Information recorded here reflects conversations held on the day, and is not intended to express the Hub’s opinion, nor the opinion of DESNZ.
Links provided relate to points arising in discussions. Where captured in session notes, some specific examples from LEAD projects are provided; this does not reflect the value or relevance of projects that were not used as examples.
The report is not a comprehensive record of what the projects are doing or have achieved. It reflects event discussions, guided by topics primarily suggested by attendees.
Emerging themes
The event primarily focused on 15 topic-based discussions, using the World Café (aka Open Space) method to select and facilitate topics. Session 1 topics were pre-selected by the Hubs and DESNZ. Other topics were suggested by attendees on the day, and were voted for discussion in Sessions 2 and 3.
From these discussions emerged the following themes:
- Theme 1: Reaching target audiences
- Theme 2: Tailoring messages for target audiences
- Theme 3: Overcoming barriers in the customer journey
- Theme 4: Working with installers and other suppliers
- Theme 5: Digital tools and retrofit assessments
- Theme 6: Data sharing
- Theme 7: Retrofitting rental properties
- Theme 8: Retrofitting traditional buildings
- Theme 9: Alternative funding models
- Theme 10: Project and partnership management
- Theme 11: Fund and funding challenges
- Legacy and next steps
The report is organised into these themes, delving into the key points made by the attendees during the three sessions of discussions.
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