He joins a highly experienced team of experts who have over 100 years of combined experience in influential roles within the retrofit housing sector.

Lynne Sullivan OBE, chair of the National Retrofit Hub Board, said: “Simon’s active engagement across the industry mirrors the collaborative ethos that defines our mission at the Hub. This appointment comes at a pivotal moment as we are rapidly building progress at the Hub; our working group activity is in full swing with our first outputs due in the Autumn, a new website and branding will soon be unveiled, and the Board and Executive team are collaborating with a growing number of partners and sponsors.

“Drawing from Simon’s experience within groups like the Scottish Government’s Green Heat Finance Task Force, the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Future Homes Taskforce and the UK government’s Energy Efficiency Task Force will help us to ensure that we consider the conditions needed to scale retrofit from the many different local contexts that exist throughout the length and breadth of the UK. This appointment will also help us make stronger connections with the work of the UKGBC, where Simon plays a leading role. We look forward to sharing where we have got to so far with Simon and gaining his advice and guidance on the routes forward.”

With more than 25 years of experience, Simon is a distinguished leader of communications, business development, industry, policy, and advocacy, with previous roles spanning construction, finance, and not-for-profit sectors.

Simon McWhirter was delighted to share his motivations for joining the Hub’s Board, he commented: “The National Retrofit Hub will fill a longstanding missing piece of the puzzle of solving our national housing retrofit crisis. I’m excited to lend my experience to the shared mission of upgrading the UK’s housing stock to prepare for a net zero future.

“In the face of a deepening climate emergency, the Hub’s work couldn’t be more critical to our net zero mission. We know that there is no single policy or industry lever that we can pull to achieve retrofit at the speed and scale needed, which makes collaboration our only pathway to nationwide retrofit – both top-down led by governments and bottom-up on the groundwork by learning from industry’s best practice on the ground. With both UKGBC and the National Retrofit Hub ideally placed to enable that collaboration, I look forward to an even closer partnership that can accelerate our shared goals.”