The North East Combined Authority (North East CA) is looking to appoint an organisation to deliver the North East Warm Homes one stop shop service on behalf of the Combined Authority and its constituent local authorities. The purpose of the North East Warm Homes service is to accelerate home retrofit and energy saving improvements across the region through the provision of advice and support to consumers and other complementary activity to identify and address challenges to retrofit at scale.
The North East CA has committed, through the Deeper Devolution Deal, to bring forward a North East capacity building programme, identifying measures needed to promote a viable, stable long-term approach to retrofit. The English Devolution White Paper confirms that retrofit funding will form part of integrated settlements to Established CAs including the North East by 2028 at the latest. The North East must ensure it has a robust plan and the capacity to deliver this retrofit funding locally to grasp the opportunity of devolved funding. Key to this will be the ability to demonstrate impact of a sustained retrofit service delivered at the CA level with local authority partners, and delivery mechanisms in place to target and channel devolved funding.
In July 2024, the North East CA’s Cabinet approved the Housing and Land strategic portfolio plan which included the CA’s ambitions to scale up retrofit across the region. Priorities included the development of a comprehensive, long-term approach to retrofit, delivering retrofit advice, and creating better quality, energy efficient homes across all tenure types.
In her manifesto, the North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness, committed to retrofitting more homes to make the North East’s housing stock greener, warmer and cheaper to run, particularly for social and private renters. Tackling child poverty is the Mayor’s top priority and supporting families to reduce energy bills is an important part of this mission. The Mayor also acknowledged that a major retrofit programme would create jobs and help to build a skilled workforce locally. These Mayoral priorities are reflected in the North East CA’s Corporate Plan 2024/28, with work to reduce domestic CO2 emissions and to increase domestic retrofit delivering against two of its missions: ‘Home of the green energy revolution’’, and ‘A North East we are proud to call home.’
Invitation To Tender Details
The details of the opportunity can be found on the Open tender portal from Thursday 10 July 2025.
Provider Engagement Event
An online event was held on Wednesday 9 July from 1.30 – 2.30pm.
The session covered the specification and procurement process. The presentation concluded with a Q&A session, offering an opportunity for attendees to ask questions and engage directly with the team.