"Data is the bedrock of any credible energy security strategy"
- Jim Driver - Cotality
Climate-tech firm Cotality has enhanced its Retrofit Intelligence services with a high-resolution building survey data feed, giving mortgage lenders, landlords and local authorities detailed property-level information on insulation, heating systems, floor areas and renewables.
The upgrade, announced on 19th March, is designed to sharpen retrofit planning and support the UK's energy transition by replacing broad assumptions with specific measurements.
The new data feed refreshes daily and draws on full building assessment datasets rather than summary EPC data, offering a more accurate foundation for energy modelling, Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards compliance and Decent Homes projections.
What the new data covers
The upgraded feed delivers several layers of additional detail across residential portfolios:
- Precise floor area and room height measurements, essential for calculating heat loss and correctly sizing heat pumps
- Expanded information on heating systems and renewables, providing greater insight into grid pressure and energy-saving potential
- Granular fabric performance data covering wall construction, insulation thickness and glazing specifications
- A daily refresh cycle to keep client housing stock databases current
Together, these enhancements eliminate what Cotality describes as reliance on archetypal assumptions, replacing them with property-specific data that can support more targeted investment decisions.
Fighting fuel poverty with better data
For local authorities and social landlords, the practical application is in identifying the least energy-efficient homes occupied by the most vulnerable residents. By layering high-resolution thermal performance data against socio-economic indicators, providers can map "cold spots" with far greater precision than existing tools allow.
The implication for government spending is significant. With Warm Homes funding under pressure to deliver measurable outcomes, directing capital toward the properties that will benefit most depends on knowing which those are. Cotality's intelligence aims to ensure that insulation upgrades and heating system improvements are targeted at homes where the reduction in energy bills will be most immediate.
Closing the EPC data gap for mortgage lenders
For UK mortgage lenders, the upgrade addresses a longstanding limitation in portfolio-level ESG reporting. Moving beyond broad EPC band classifications to property-level data on fabric, heating specifications and room dimensions gives lenders the granularity needed to meet tightening regulatory standards for financed emissions disclosure.
Cotality says it can layer the survey data against lenders' reported loan-to-value ratios to produce auditable, property-level emissions analysis, with a full trail from individual survey to portfolio-level reporting.
The higher-resolution data also feeds into Cotality's Net Zero Hub platform, which helps lenders identify retrofit opportunities across their back books and inform product development for energy efficiency mortgages and green lending initiatives under the government's Warm Homes Plan.
The regulatory and commercial case
"Data is the bedrock of any credible energy security strategy," said Jim Driver, managing director of Cotality. "The addition of this data stream is a significant milestone for our Retrofit Intelligence services, including Portfolio, Pathways and Net Zero Hub. It gives our partners the empirical foundation needed to move beyond estimates, manage climate risk effectively and begin delivering street-by-street transformations with confidence."
The upgrade arrives as the UK government's shift to a daily, granular EPC data feed raises the bar for what lenders and landlords are expected to know about the properties on their books. For those with large residential portfolios, the gap between what they can currently report and what regulators may soon require is narrowing faster than many anticipated.
As ESG disclosure requirements tighten and the Warm Homes Plan moves from policy to delivery, tools that translate raw survey data into actionable retrofit decisions are likely to see growing demand from both the public and private sectors in the months ahead.
