Whole house retrofit works
Flintshire County Council
- Prestatyn
- £4m
- 1 year
Eleven year relationship warms homes across Flintshire
Connolly has worked with Flintshire County Council (FCC) since 2015 to carry out whole house retrofit works across the county.
As part of retrofit works to make people’s homes warmer, in 2026, we carried out improvements on a total of 93 properties, including 52 bungalows. The programme took place across one estate in the LL19 postcode.
- The brief : Connolly was appointed by Flintshire County Council to carry out SHDF works on 93 properties in the Prestatyn area.
- The challenge : Planning the external works around changing weather conditions.
- The solution : Clear communication between site and customer teams, alongside meticulous planning allowed for programme delays to be avoided.
Our scope of works included
- Roofing repair and replacement
- Solar PV installation
- Cavity wall insulation (CWI)
- Energy efficient window and door installations
- Individual property ventilation strategy (e.g. fans, internal door adjustments, trickle vents)
- External wall insulation (EWI)
- External painting
Connolly’s approach
Our dedicated Flintshire-based team was made up of English and Welsh speaking members and local sub-contractors, with labour, joiners, painters, renderers, finishers and scaffolders all working together to complete the works in a timely manner and improve EPC ratings to a minimum of C.
As with many external programmes, the biggest challenge our site team faced was the unpredictable Welsh weather. To avoid project delays, careful planning and sequencing, alongside weather monitoring, ensured close coordination between teams, residents and partners. This kept works moving forward.
Remaining flexible in our approach where necessary, we identified alternative activities during adverse weather to make the best use of our time on site, ensuring no delays and minimising disruption for residents.
Although no access issues can often be common occurrences for invasive works, our customer team worked closely with FCC and residents to identify and address people’s concerns early on. Before works began, our customer liaison officer (CLO) and site manager hosted a coffee morning for residents at a local church to explain who we are and why we needed access to their homes.
This also gave residents the opportunity to meet the team, ask questions and better understand the importance and benefits of retrofit works. This early engagement helped build trust, encourage access, and create positive relationships from the outset.
Social value
Volunteering to give back to the local community
Since 2015 Connolly has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Flintshire County Council. This lengthy partnership means we are well integrated within the community and consider ourselves locals.
Thanks to this fantastic collaboration, we have been able to give back to neighbourhoods in a range of ways that improve things for the people who live there.
Over the Christmas period, our site manager and CLO arranged donations from local sub-contractors for selection boxes, books and hampers. These were contributed to the local resident-run bingo and primary school to spread some festive cheer.
Giving people opportunities is close to our hearts and something we aspire towards at Connolly, which is why we are big supporters of the We Mind the Gap initiative helping young people into employment.
A Mind The Gap open day we attended was a brilliant opportunity for us to highlight the offers available to apprentices, underlining the challenges young people across Flintshire face.
Helping to educate the next generation, we donated planters to a local primary school. Built by our apprentice joiner, we supported the school’s planting initiative and World of Work Day through a health and safety talk.
We also helped one young person realise their potential through a two-week work experience placement shadowing our site manager, CLO and various trades. The opportunity opened doors for further opportunities with our scaffolding partner Pro Scaffold.
A process refined over
four decades
- Framework mobilisation : Getting resource and infrastructure ready for delivery
- Scoping
and surveys : Agreeing the scope of works and budgets - Customer care, KPI and social value development : Liaising with residents and measuring community impact
- Project mobilisation
and delivery : Completing the works to the highest standards
Any questions?
If you have a programme of works that you’d like to discuss or would appreciate a chat about how to achieve more with less (because isn’t that always how it is!), please fire away.
