About

Retrofit+ is a construction cooperative. Formed as a ‘trading arm’ of the Brookfield Spaceplace charity and based out of the Soundskills Centre on the Brookfield estate in Preston. We are at the beginning of our journey towards the development of a local workforce that will provide retrofit services to the estate and wider Preston.

The idea developed from work we were doing on a project called TechCare, where we were looking at how automation would affect the jobs landscape going forward and identified that Green Sector skills would become more and more important. This thinking was compounded by the pandemic and a realisation that a more ambitious & strategic approach was needed to bring ‘real, positive & sustainable change’ to the estate – impact through quality jobs, healthier homes and lower bills.

After 30 years of ‘creative development work’ supporting local people, we understood that our approach had some sustainable merit already and aligned acutely with the Preston Model’s agenda of community wealth building. So out of that experience the Brookfield Retrofit cooperative was formed, trading as Retrofit+. As it blends with our ongoing creative output we look forward to it shaping the next 30 years and generating profits that feed back into the Brookie estate.

Workforce

This initiative will centre around the development of a ‘local workforce’ that we will identify on the estate and nurture over the next few years. We’re targeting local tradespeople that are keen to upskill, disaffected young people and adults that fancy a career change.

Onsite training will be provided as we retrofit the Soundskills Centre. Working alongside the retrofit experts work team from Stoic Homes and supported by development staff.

Providing opportunities for the local workforce to gather industry qualifications we are also looking to certify our bespoke training programme in time too.

Local workforce so far

Coop members so far

Directors so far

£116K

Monies raised so far

Meet Our Team

Mel Close

Company Secretary

Liam Blake

Director

Maria Czirbuly

Director

Chris Davis

Director

Stoic Homes UK Ltd

Director

Improving housing and people’s quality of life ….

………… requires a partnership approach. We are working closely with a number of organisations & stakeholders to develop this initiative. Some are indicated here, but this list is increasing all the time.

Together we are developing the Retrofit strategic business plan, the local workforce through the phase 1 & 2 retrofit work on the Soundskills centre and planning for a local housing summit in the summer that will look at improving the cities housing situation from a grassroots perspective.

Training pathways

There is a huge skill shortage in the retrofit sector and a major part of our success will be down to our capacity to find people with the right aptitude locally and the mechanisms in place to train them correctly – we will be engaging with local colleges to eventually certify all of our bespoke training modules.

See here for more information.