By Danny Williams, managing director of Pioneer Trading.

There is a £41 billion market sitting under our noses, and I’m not entirely sure the window and door industry has realised quite how much of it belongs to us.

A new report commissioned by CITB and developed with the Federation of Master Builders puts the value of repairing, maintaining and improving Britain’s existing homes at £41 billion of construction turnover. Increasingly, much of the conversation around improving our existing housing stock is being discussed under one word: retrofit.

Mention retrofit and I suspect many people in our industry immediately picture heat pumps, solar panels, insulation and government grant schemes. Perhaps we need to challenge that perception, because much of what is now being described as retrofit is actually home improvement by another name.

What exactly have replacement-window companies been doing for the past 50 years? We remove an inefficient component of a house and replace it with something that performs better. It reduces heat loss, cuts draughts, improves comfort, often reduces noise and improves security. Replacing an old door does much the same thing. The terminology may have changed and policymakers may have discovered a fashionable new word for it, but we have been retrofitting Britain’s homes for decades.

The scale of what lies ahead makes this more than an argument about terminology. A House of Commons committee looking at home retrofit concluded that around 29 million UK homes will need some form of upgrading by 2050, while four out of every five homes which will be occupied in 2050 have already been built.

Governments naturally make headlines by talking about new houses: one-and-a-half million homes here, new towns there, planning reform, brownfield development and whatever the housing minister happens to be announcing this week.

All important, but the overwhelming majority of the houses Britain will be living in for decades to come are already standing.

They have roofs, walls, boilers, windows and doors that will periodically need repairing, improving or replacing.

Many of those houses are thermally inefficient. Some are damp. Others increasingly overheat. Millions will require new heating systems, insulation and other energy-saving measures. Every one represents potential work for somebody.
The question, therefore, isn’t how the window and door industry gets into this £41 billion retrofit market. We’re already in it. The question is how we take a bigger share of it.

Part of the answer is positioning. If an installer continues to advertise simply on “windows, doors and conservatories”, then that is probably how the homeowner will continue to see them: somebody to call when the windows are rotten, misted up or simply look tired.

But customers don’t really want windows or doors. They want a warmer house, lower bills, better security, less maintenance and more comfort; increasingly, perhaps, a house that doesn’t become unbearably hot during one of our ever-hotter summers. What they actually want is a better-performing home.

That should change the conversation. Instead of competing simply over which company can supply eight windows and two doors for the lowest price, installers can become advisers on improving the property. Where is it losing heat? Where are the draughts? Is there condensation? Does one part of the house overheat? Which improvements will make the greatest difference?

It doesn’t necessarily have to happen in one transaction. A homeowner may not want, or be able, to upgrade the entire property at once. A good home-improvement company could help develop a sensible programme over several years: windows now, doors later, perhaps other improvements subsequently. That creates a relationship rather than simply an order.

Manufacturers have a role too. We need to give installers the information and sales tools to explain how products contribute to the overall performance of a home, rather than simply another brochure filled with profiles, colours,

U-values and hardware specifications. Consumers don’t buy U-values. They buy what those numbers deliver.
Perhaps we simply need to make more noise as well. Heat pumps, solar panels and insulation have successfully positioned themselves at the centre of the retrofit conversation. Windows and doors can appear almost as an afterthought, despite being among the most visible, established and easily understood improvements a homeowner can make.

British homeowners already spend serious money improving their properties. Parliamentary evidence has noted that around £15 billion a year is spent fitting approximately 1.3 million new kitchens.

That statistic fascinates me. A £20,000 kitchen will not do a thing to achieve net zero. There isn’t a government grant persuading homeowners to replace perfectly serviceable cupboard doors with handleless matt grey ones. They spend the money because they value their homes and because somebody has successfully persuaded them that the improvement is worth having.

Our challenge is to win a greater share of that spending. That won’t be achieved simply by waiting for government grants or hoping somebody adds replacement windows to another scheme. It will come from presenting what we do differently: not merely replacing frames and glass, but improving the comfort, efficiency, resilience, appearance and value of someone’s largest asset.

Of course, retrofit brings responsibilities. Proper assessment, competence, standards and quality matter. Nobody wants another gold rush of questionable installations and companies appearing overnight to chase government money before disappearing just as quickly.

Established window and door businesses should have an advantage. We have manufacturers, installers, accreditation, warranties and decades of experience working inside people’s homes. Perhaps what we have lacked is the confidence to see ourselves as part of something bigger.

So let’s not wait for somebody to invite us to the £41 billion retrofit party.

Home improvement was here first.