Retrofitting historic buildings

The retention, repair and sensitive retrofit of Westminster's historic buildings has a powerful role to play in the fight against climate change. By conserving and retrofitting our historic buildings and keeping them in use, we eliminate the need for carbon emissions associated with new build and reduce waste by recycling and re-using existing materials.

There are many ways to adapt and improve the energy efficiency and performance of historic buildings that work with traditional fabric and will not harm their special character. However, some standard retrofitting measures for modern buildings can cause damage to traditional buildings, causing problems with trapped moisture, which may reduce energy efficiency and bring risks to the health of occupants. Understanding how an individual building has been constructed, its context, and all the factors affecting energy use can help avoid these problems. This is called the 'whole house' approach.

Our adopted Environment SPD includes a chapter on retrofitting, which provides advice on both small and large changes you can make to reduce the carbon footprint of historic buildings and explains where you may need planning permission. You can view this chapter below.

You can read simple guides for householders on commonly proposed retrofit measures including windows, solar panels and air source heat pumps, including details of permissions and consents you may need - here.

Advice and Resources

We support the sensitive retrofit of historic buildings in Westminster but recognise that undertaking works to historic buildings can be complicated. For more advice and to find out how to make a successful application, you
can also apply for pre-planning application advice.

Apply for pre-application advice.

We now offer a discounted pre-application advice fee for householder environmental performance improvements.

Other valuable sources of advice and guidance on sensitive retrofit of historic buildings can be found below.

Adapting Historic Buildings for Energy and Efficiency - Historic England

How to improve energy efficiency in historic buildings - Historic England

Modifying historic windows - Historic England

Know your home, Know Your Carbon - Historic England 

STBA Responsible Retrofit Knowledge Centre

The Better Buildings Partnership is working with a wide range of partners in Westminster, including property owners, developers and the Great Estates to promote retrofitting and sustainability.

The Grosvenor Estate is producing an updated toolkit for leaseholders, which will also be useful for other property owners undertaking retrofitting projects. We'll share the toolkit on this page once it's available.

Other useful guidance on retrofitting has been published by the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance.