We held our latest London general meeting on 27th May, kindly hosted at the Covent Garden studios of architects Scott Brownrigg.

Co-founders Richard Nelson and Leanne Tritton led the meeting, which took members through an update of recent activities.

Here is a quick run-down of the discussion:

Song — The new ‘Don’t Waste Buildings‘ song, written and performed by Jonny Awsum, was played for everyone. It is an incredible asset, and we encourage anyone publishing about retrofit on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram or other social media platforms to link to the song in order to support your message. You can find it on all major streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, and Amazon Music.
Purpose — Richard recapped ‘our ask’ of the government, in terms of policy clarity and financial incentives supportive of retrofit.
Chapters – Leanne updated on our growing geographic coverage, with local chapters now active in the UK regions – West Midlands (Birmingham) and North West (Manchester) – as well as our first international chapter in Australia (Melbourne). A Scotland chapter will be starting up very soon, and we are in discussions with potential chapter leads in other UK regions, as well as overseas. If you would like to volunteer to help with one of our chapters, please contact the relevant Chapter Lead, whom you can find on our About page, and if you would like to volunteer to lead a new chapter, please contact us via our Get Involved page. Surprisingly, this growth is not happening according to any plan, it is happening purely through word of mouth and people approaching us to get involved and support the cause. Simply amazing!
Work streams – Leanne also noted for everyone the five work streams we have set up to focus our efforts: Financial & Tax Incentives, Emerging Policies, Case Studies, Engagement and Profile Building. If anyone would like to volunteer for one of the work streams, please contact the relevant lead, whom you can find on our About page, or send us a message via our Get Involved page.
Collaborations — Richard filled everyone in on a couple collaborative efforts we are working on.
- Richard and Matt Bullivant, Financial & Tax Incentives Co-Lead, had a meeting in March with our friends at Circular Do Tank, who are working on tax incentive proposals for re-used materials (RUMs) in construction, and we will be collaborating with them to develop and present the proposals to HM Treasury and the HMRC Construction Forum. We have a ‘Call for Evidence’ currently open until the end of June to gather data for this effort, so please respond if you can provide any helpful information. If you would like to help out on this collaboration, please contact Richard or Matt directly, or submit a message via our Get Involved page.
- We have been working alongside Scott Brownrigg on a joint proposal to the British Council for Offices (BCO) to undertake a research project to develop a ‘Guide to Retrofit’ (working title) for office developers, a best practice guide to help them to prioritise retrofit over demolition/new build. This would be a major update to the original ‘Can Do Refurbishment’ guide, which Scott Brownrigg led a team to produce in 2009. We are currently awaiting BCO’s response to our proposal, and we will update everyone once we hear. If you would like to be involved in this project, please contact Richard, or submit a message via our Get Involved page.
Profile Building update — Richard gave an update on our recent spate of PR activity. Our co-founders and some of our founding members have been quite active on the speaking and publishing circuit lately, flying the DWB flag, including:
- Concrete Communities and Twentieth Century Society – Richard spoke on a panel examining the concept of reuse organised by Concrete Communities at Space House at the launch of the C20’s latest ‘Risk List 2025’ publication, which is published every two years and highlights 10 outstanding modern buildings in the UK most at risk of demolition, redevelopment or neglect.
- Cities Forum 2025 – Hosted by the Key Cities group, Leanne spoke on a panel of national government, local leaders and the private sector in Stoke-on-Trent to discuss the role of public-private partnerships in housing delivery, culture-led regeneration, reaching net zero, and unlocking skills and innovation in the UK.
- Hug the Building! – Organised by the Architect’s Climate Action Network (ACAN), DWB co-founder Will Hurst and founding member Simon Sturgis spoke a the launch event for ACAN’s Demolition Map. The Demolition Map aims to gather information on threatened, demolished, or saved buildings, across the UK. You can find more details about the map here.
- Residential Construction Network – Tania Jennings, DWB founding member and Emerging Policies Work Stream Co-Lead, spoke at an RCN breakfast at The Building Centre on Navigating Planning and Sustainability, examining the critical challenges and opportunities in residential planning and sustainability.
- Retrofit Meets: Hearts & Minds – Leanne spoke on a panel at The Building Centre exploring the theme ‘Hearts & Minds’, challenging perceptions about building and ownership types to prioritise retrofit over more wasteful alternatives. The event was chaired by Mete Coban MBE, London Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, and the conversation addressed the headline of ‘What’s stopping us?’ in retrofit today.
- Lets talk about money: Retrofit needs to be profitable – A DWB-takeover, Leanne and Will led a panel at the FOOTPRINT+ annual conference, exploring how retrofit needs to be simpler and more profitable if we are to create the conditions that encourage the reuse of buildings, rather than demolish and build new. Fellow DWB members Becci Taylor of Arup, and Ben Cross of MORE, were also on the panel. (Richard was also due to be there, but was ill, unfortunately!)
Case Studies update — Scott Farrar, Case Studies Work Stream Lead, gave the group a comprehensive update on both upcoming case study tours that we have scheduled, as well as a new idea for a webinar series of ‘Retrofits in Progress’ (RIPs), where we cannot visit the site due to construction activity. He also discussed the new framework that he and the team have been working on for gathering case study data for ongoing research and reference. The slide deck (see below) runs through the data collection framework in more detail, noting five key areas of focus: Project Information, Environmental Impact, Social Value, Financial Analysis, Policy & Regulatory Context. If you have any questions, or would like to work on the Case Studies team, please contact Scott via LinkedIn or send him a message via our Get Involved page.
Financial & Tax Incentives update — Sara Willard, Financial & Tax Incentives Work Stream Co-Lead, discussed the framework she and fellow co-lead, Matt Bullivant, have been working on for developing a best practice guide to retrofit for both private developers (covering micro issues on the benefits of retrofit for specific projects) and public sector owners (looking at the wider macro scale economic development benefits of retrofit, such as economic growth, re-skilling and employment, meeting housing targets, innovation, creating economic opportunity, social value, improved health and wellbeing, etc.) If you have any questions, or would like to work on this work stream, please contact Sara or Matt, or send them a message via our Get Involved page.
What’s next? — Richard wrapped things up with a reminder of our key ongoing objectives and overriding mission:
- Finding a parliamentary sponsor and ongoing policymaker engagement at both national and local/regional levels
- More case study tours across the country to highlight retrofit benefits (as well as obstacles) and to demonstrate the art of the possible
- Publication updates (financial and policy guides) and other developer resources to help decision-makers
- More key message outreach and profile building to spread the word
- Achieving the objective – policy clarity and financial incentives supportive of retrofit

After the update and a bit of open discussion, the group enjoyed some much-needed networking with each other over drinks and nibbles.

We very much missed the presence of our third co-founder, Will Hurst, who was off with his family for half term!

For those who were not able to attend, click the image below to download a copy of the evening’s slide deck.

And finally, many thanks to Scott Brownrigg for hosting the meeting. 🙏

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