Up to 800 Lewisham council homes will get insulation, low-carbon heating and solar panels by 2028. A Lewisham-founded firm, Ksquared, will run the design work.
Up to 800 Lewisham council homes will be insulated and fitted with low-carbon heating by 2028, and the council has chosen a firm founded by someone born in the borough to plan the work.
The council announced on 29 September that it has appointed Ksquared to its social homes retrofit programme. It says it is investing more than £16 million in the programme.
Ksquared will carry out retrofit assessments, design the works and coordinate the programme through to final handover. The council describes it as a local SME and a social enterprise. It was founded by Kasang Kajang, who was born and grew up in Lewisham.
What the work includes
The council lists these measures:
- better insulation and ventilation
- a switch to low-carbon heating
- solar panels
- cutting the amount of energy tenants need to buy each year
The council says the programme puts first the homes that are “the coldest, dampest or most expensive to heat”. When the funding was won in March 2025, it said it would target homes its own housing survey had found to have low energy ratings, damp or mould.
Some blocks have already been done. Cllr Natalie Thomas, Cabinet Member for Safer Homes, Homelessness and Housing Services, said: “Residents in the first blocks to get the upgrades have already told us they feel protected from rising energy bills.” The council has not named those blocks or the ones that follow.
Where the £16 million comes from
The money comes from two places. The government’s Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3 offered Lewisham £7,122,851, and the council accepted it, according to the GOV.UK list of successful landlords.
The council committed a further £9.1 million of its own when it won the bid in March 2025.
This is a much bigger programme than the last round. In March 2023 the council won £2.98 million from the earlier Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to retrofit 159 council homes.
Jobs for Lewisham residents
As part of the contract, the council says Ksquared will:
- create two full-time jobs for Lewisham residents
- offer local work experience
- run community engagement activities using its team’s expertise
“I was born in Lewisham and grew up in the borough, so having the opportunity to bring Ksquared’s experience back to the community where my own journey started means a great deal,” said Kasang Kajang, Ksquared’s founding director.
Ksquared’s own website says it helps social landlords fund, design and deliver retrofit work. Its services include funding and asset reviews, programme management, architecture and PAS 2035, the industry standard for domestic retrofit.
What it means for you
- If you rent from the council: the council says Ksquared will work with residents and keep them informed at each stage, from the first assessment to handover. If your block is chosen, the first stage is a retrofit assessment of the home.
- If your home is cold, damp or has mould now: report it to the council as a repair. Do not wait for the retrofit programme, which runs to 2028 and does not reach every home.
- If you own your home or rent privately: this programme covers council homes only. The council points low-income and vulnerable private residents to other grants, including ECO4 and the Warm Homes: Local Grant, in its March 2025 announcement.
For what the council’s housing service scores with its own tenants, see our report on Lewisham council housing tenant satisfaction.
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