Turning retrofit ambition into action for homeowners across Dorset

• Dorset Council is helping residents improve energy efficiency as part of its net zero plans and response to rising energy costs.
• The council used our digital tool Homewise to give residents free, personalised retrofit advice.
• The team initially set out to achieve 1,000 tool engagements within 12 months. This was beaten in just six short weeks. The team also saw six times more traffic to its new retrofit web content than anticipated.
• Our partnership helped Dorset reach more residents, simplify the journey, and generate insight to support future funding and delivery.

Dorset Council delivers around 450 services to more than 380,000 residents. Like many local authorities, Dorset faces a dual challenge:

• meeting ambitious climate targets
• supporting residents through rising energy costs to stay warm and make savings

Around half of Dorset’s homes fall short of EPC C, meaning improving housing energy efficiency is critical for both carbon reduction and reducing bills.

Dorset Council needed to help more residents take action on home energy efficiency.

However, they faced several barriers:

• low awareness of retrofit options
• complex, technical information that was hard to navigate
• limited access to trusted, tailored advice
• difficulty reaching residents beyond existing schemes for vulnerable households

At the same time, the wider context made this more urgent:

• energy costs remain high and volatile
• more households need to improve energy security and reduce bills
• local authorities need to connect residents with available funding and support

Without action, Dorset risked:

• slowing progress towards its 2045 net zero target
• increasing fuel poverty
• missing the opportunity to improve comfort and health outcomes for residents

Dorset Council partnered with our Energy Saving Trust data experts to deliver a creative and engaging ‘Home Habitats’ campaign centred around our Homewise tool.

Homewise gives residents:

• simple, personalised energy advice based on their home
• clear recommendations on improvements, costs and savings
• practical plans with next steps to take action

This allowed Dorset to:

• make the first step into retrofit simple and accessible
• provide trusted, impartial advice at scale
• create a clear call to action within its campaign

Rather than relying on fragmented information, residents could access everything in one place. The partnership also enabled Dorset to connect residents to existing support such as grants and local schemes and gather insight on resident behaviour and engagement.

The team applied behavioural science techniques to develop an attention grabbing creative and deployed this with a strong call to action to use Homewise. They used a combination of targeted digital adverts and out-of-home in key locations across the region. This included large digital billboards, YouTube ads, back of bus displays, and leaflets in DIY shops to name just a few.

During the initial 11-week campaign period, Dorset Council surpassed the targets it set for a whole year for Homewise interactions. With just one short, concentrated comms push, and a limited budget, the Dorset team saw:

• 1,763 Homewise interactions (up from the goal of 250 interactions across the campaign period, and 1,000 interactions across the full 12 months)
• this led to 154 registered users and 113 sign-ups for further contact
• over 6,000 visits were made to the council’s new retrofit advice webpages created as part of the campaign (six times more than expected)
• almost 400 grant enquiries (up 177 on previous year) came through to the Healthy Homes Dorset programme, which gives residents energy efficiency advice
• 20 applications were made to Dorset’s local energy loan scheme (up 12 on the same period the year before)

The results show that residents moved beyond awareness to actively exploring their options.

Dorset Council plans to build on this approach by:

• following up with residents who engaged with the tool
• providing tailored communications on funding and support
• using insight to refine future campaigns

Speak to us today about how we can help you engage residents, deliver retrofit at scale, and connect households with funding and support.