Managing or Driving Change? Establishing Consensus of Opinion on Improving the Energy Efficiency of Historic Buildings

This paper aims to establish how much consensus of opinion there is on energy efficiency and historic/traditional buildings in the UK. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to establish breadth and depth of opinion. Thirteen qualitative interviews with field experts were analysed using grounded theory. The results formed the basis of an online survey, which was scrutinised for occupation and region to reveal consensus, continuum, or conflict of opinion. There was much agreement on the importance of retrofitting historic/traditional buildings, and even more consensus that it should be done in a balanced way while recognising a range of values. The work identified topics of debate to resolve and revealed much common ground.