NEF and National Retrofit Hub co-design six metrics to measure retrofit value beyond carbon

The National Energy Foundation has adopted six key metrics, co-designed with the National Retrofit Hub and consultant Jo Taylor, to measure the health, comfort and advice benefits of its work alongside bill savings and carbon reductions.

The National Retrofit Hub (NRH) set out the project in a blog published on 20 October, developed jointly with the National Energy Foundation (NEF) and with input from Jo Taylor of charity development specialist Jo Taylor Consulting.

According to the blog, NEF already collected a considerable amount of information on its services and outcomes, supported by customer satisfaction surveys and testimonials. Feedback from residents, however, pointed to benefits that were not fully reflected in its reporting, including warmer, more comfortable homes, improved wellbeing and the value of access to trusted, impartial advice.

Alison Vickers, Operations Director at NEF, said: "Residents were not always aware of all the positive outcomes they were receiving, we were underselling our work, and our funders could not see everything their support was making possible."

The workshops

NRH convened a series of interactive workshops involving people from across NEF, with Jo Taylor supporting their development and facilitation. The blog said colleagues with different roles and levels of seniority took part, and that the sessions explored NEF's purpose, the changes it wants to create and what each audience for its impact information needs from it.

Taylor had previously supported NRH to develop its own monitoring and evaluation approach. "I really enjoyed the opportunity to combine my impact know-how with NRH's technical expertise and NEF's operational insights," she said.

The outcome was a set of co-designed impact areas and six key metrics that NEF can use to demonstrate the value of its work. The framework covers residents' health, comfort and wellbeing, their experience of NEF's service and the value of access to impartial advice. NRH said it builds on information NEF already holds, and that the project also identified gaps in the evidence and informed a practical plan for future data collection.

What happens next

NEF is now developing an impact dashboard based on the six metrics. Staff will use it internally, while the charity's board will use it to assess impact and support future decisions. NEF also plans to use the findings to guide the continued development of its services.

For NRH, the collaboration provided what it called a practical opportunity to test broader outcomes measurement. It said the learning will inform its continuing work to strengthen impact evaluation across retrofit, decarbonisation and fuel poverty alleviation.

The background

The project builds on NRH's Measuring Outcomes and Impact Evaluation workstream, which aims to improve how success in retrofit is defined, targeted and measured. NRH has said that project explores what it would take to create a more rigorous foundation for scaling retrofit programmes, and its analysis argues that the metrics used by government for retrofit are too narrow to capture the full picture of its potential benefits.

NRH is a Community Interest Company established in 2023, with a stated mission to enable the local and equitable delivery of retrofit at scale.

NEF describes itself as an independent domestic energy and sustainability charity that exists to alleviate fuel poverty and enable low-carbon retrofitting of UK homes. It was established in 1988 by Milton Keynes Development Corporation and grew out of Energy World, a demonstration of 51 low-energy houses designed to be at least 30% more efficient than the building regulations of the time. The charity says it has helped tens of thousands of households through its fuel poverty services and worked with the Energy Saving Trust in setting up the UK's network of Energy Efficiency Advice Centres.

In July 2025 NEF announced that Jade Lewis had become its chair of trustees, succeeding Liz Male, who stepped down after a decade as a trustee and nearly six years as chair. NEF's announcement described Lewis as an advocate for the National Retrofit Hub.

NEF's latest published impact report, for 2024/25, brings together its impact, programme performance and the voices of residents and staff.