About Us

Community Powered Retrofit

WHO WE ARE
Retrofit Balsall Heath (RBH) is a bold, resident-led movement reshaping our neighbourhood from the ground up. Born from grassroots determination and built on the combined deep local knowledge of partners and volunteers, we are pioneering a just and community-led transition to a low-carbon future—one home, one street, and one conversation at a time.

Our vision is simple yet transformative: empower the people who live here to lead the green transition. In a sector often dominated by large contractors and top-down decisions, we’re proving there’s a better way—where residents co-design retrofit solutions, shape governance, and share in the benefits of cleaner, warmer homes and greener streets.
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Thanks to the crucial support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, we’ve grown from a passionate volunteer collective into a recognised force for climate justice.

We’ve built strong partnerships and are developing a formal governance structure. Importantly, we’ve done this without losing sight of our values: inclusion, trust, collaboration, and community ownership.

what we've achieved

Launch of Retrofit Balsall Heath: July 2022 at Al-Abbas Islamic Centre with 250 people and many activities. From Sheikh Nuru Mohammed’s inspiring keynote: “When we come together as a community, we can take this to the next level."

Retrofitting of 650 homes: Completed in Balsall Heath and surrounding areas with Birmingham City Council “Warmer Homes” funding. These partial retrofit measures average £10K per home, with criteria set in Westminster, including insulation, solar PV, windows/doors, heat pumps. Retrofit Balsall Heath, MECC and partners accelerated take-up of the scheme through community-led outreach, vastly in excess of similar local authority results in the past, and successfully campaigned to remove household income criteria. Although not fully community-led, this scheme has certainly catalysed community interest.

Pioneering outreach: Through 23 different community groups, WhatsApp groups, street-by-street door knocking, local radio & media, Balsall Heath Carnival, and multiple community meetings and meals. Experimenting with local street champions outreach and liaison.
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Local resident campaign victory: a new 450-home development has been forced to fit green heat pumps, instead of polluting fossil-fuel gas boilers, after a local outcry. ‍

AND more!

Collaboration with our local ICS (Integrated Care System) Health Inequalities Programme/BRIG (Birmingham Race Impact Group). At their Health and Race Summit, Retrofit Balsall Heath were invited to present our work. There are huge health benefits of home retrofit, as sadly cold homes kill 6,000/year in UK. Our homes are making us ill - and at great cost to the NHS. Community-led retrofit, including growing, greening, shared transport, reduced bills/worry can help with health, wellbeing, resilience, jobs and skills.

Collaboration withSHAP (Sustainable Housing Action Partnership) on community-led input to a national retrofit campaign with SHAPS’s Retrofit: A System Change Proposal to Government.

WMCA (West Midlands Combined Authority) Retrofit Balsall Heath is contributing to the cohort group for Net Zero Neighbourhoods (NZN) and envisioning a true community-led retrofit programme, developed from WMCA existing (local-authority-led) NZNs.

Awards: BE-ST Collaborative Partnership Award 2023; The Big Issue Top 100 Changemakers 2023; Retrofit Academy Award 2024.

And even more!

Balsall Heath Nature Map: led by two mosques and a church, this collaboration maps and celebrates the precious green spaces in our densely built-up neighbourhood, with community artwork and opening up wider climate conversations.

Retrofit Reimagined: RBH is a founding partner. Festivals in Birmingham 2022, & nationally 2023, co-created with zero carbon house, Civic Square, Dark Matter Labs and ACAN (Architects Climate Action Network). Its central proposition: What if the climate transition and retrofit of our homes and streets were designed, owned and governed by the people who live there?

‍Climania: a board game about retrofitting Balsall Heath (yes!), created by local 6th Form students with Simeon Shtebunaev and Birmingham City University: an imaginative and refreshing outreach tool.

‍Zero Carbon House: UK’s first zero carbon retrofit (2009) and home of local architect John Christophers and his family. A decade of monitoring by Prof Lubo Jankovic has shown energy reduced by 85%, and the house generating all its own energy +40% extra. By hosting multiple open days, from the design stages, “the eco house with no bills” has attracted much interest and a resulting desire for neighbourhood retrofit locally.

‍Civic Square: an amazing neighbourhood collective in Ladywood Birmingham, who are collaborating with us Retrofit Balsall Heath, and Dark Matter Labs, and Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics Action Lab DEAL as pilot transition/retrofit projects.

‍Retrofit-23: an exhibition at The Building Centre in London 2023, featuring Retrofit Balsall Heath, Zero Carbon House, and Retrofit Reimagined Festival.

Looking to the future

In 2024 we hosted our first Retrofit Action Day, welcoming over 140 local residents for workshops, exhibitions, and interfaith reflections on climate justice. In 2025 we held a Retrofit Interfaith Iftar which brought over 120 people in the community to talk about neighbourhood's hearts and minds. In May 2025 our Retrofit Spring Fayre was the biggest event we've held with 250 people engaged in retrofit activities including hands on DIY, draught excluding, composting, tours and planting.

We are creating paid freelance roles in community outreach and training, recognising and rewarding the skills already present in Balsall Heath. Through partnerships with the Sähëlï Hub, we are making sure women and under-represented groups have real leadership opportunities in this transition.We are especially proud of our Street Demonstrator feasibility work: a 26-home pilot co-designed with residents and partners like FurbNow and Dark Matter Labs, showing what’s possible when communities lead.

We're also co-creating tools like a custom Retrofit Plan Builder with RetrofitWorks, giving households the knowledge and power to make the changes that matter (sign up to hear the latest news).The press has noticed. Our story has been featured in The Guardian, The Big Issue, Channel 4, The Times, and The New Statesman. We’re influencing national policy conversations and contributing to major initiatives like Retrofit Reimagined, where our voice helps shape a future where retrofitting is rooted in justice, not just energy performance. Looking ahead we are developing local retrofit skills training and paid placements, ensuring residents can access the green jobs of the future.

Retrofit Balsall Heath isn’t just about insulating walls—it’s about building power, capacity, and hope. Together, we’re showing what’s possible when a community refuses to be passive recipients of climate solutions—and instead becomes the solution itself.