Beyond tenant refusal: Organisational fragmentation, relational capacity, and social housing retrofit

Decarbonising the United Kingdom's housing stock is a critical component of government strategy to achieve net zero by 2050, and social housing providers have a significant role in delivering the energy retrofit measures necessary to achieve this aim. However, social housing tenants retain the right to refuse retrofit measures, and tenant refusal remains a significant and ongoing barrier to successful retrofit delivery. Research on barriers to retrofit uptake has focused primarily on information and communication, tenant engagement and inclusion in decision-making, tenant learning about retrofit technologies, and reducing disruption to tenants. However, little attention has been paid to the organisational transformation necessary to support these outcomes. Drawing on a government-funded intensive action research project and a case study of a single housing association, this paper examines organisational understandings of retrofit refusal and the organisational conditions of retrofit delivery. The findings identify organisational fragmentation, weak internal coherence, and misaligned delivery practices as conditions associated with tenant-facing experiences of retrofit. Rather than directly explaining individual tenant refusal decisions, the paper develops a relational model of how organisational coherence shapes the conditions under which retrofit is experienced, negotiated, and potentially accepted or refused. The paper therefore shifts attention from tenant refusal as an individual decision toward the organisational conditions that shape retrofit experiences and negotiations, highlighting the importance of organisational coherence in the delivery of social housing retrofit.