Multi-family apartment buildings house around 60% of people in Central and Eastern Europe, and renovating them is central to cutting energy poverty and meeting the goals of the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The harder question is how to turn available funding and technical solutions into projects that homeowners’ associations can agree on, finance and carry out.

Drawing on three years of work in Burgas, Józsefváros, Elektrėnai and Kaišiadorys, this ComActivate policy paper focuses on two tools that address that challenge:

• One-stop shops, known in the project as Resource Centres, guide residents and homeowners’ associations through the renovation process.
• Neighbourhood Energy Sufficiency Roadmaps help municipalities plan renovation and demand reduction across a whole neighbourhood rather than building by building.

Both tools were tested in the pilot municipalities, and their experience shows a common risk: when a service depends on short-term project funding, municipalities can lose the staff, expertise and resident trust they have built up. The paper looks at what lets a one-stop shop endure, from its place in public institutions to how it handles the peaks and troughs of national funding calls, and at how NESRs can become part of a municipality’s regular planning and budgeting.

It sets out a blueprint for national governments, covering the legal mandate, financing and renovation programmes that one-stop shops need to operate permanently. It also offers a practical blueprint for municipalities to embed neighbourhood roadmaps and give local one-stop shops a formal role in delivering them. Good practice examples from the pilots, and the opportunities offered by the EPBD and the Social Climate Fund, run throughout.

Download the paper to explore the full recommendations for moving from pilot to policy.