More than four million houses built between 1840 and 1919 are still in use - this BRE Trust report proposes a method of assessing the refurbishment of these houses similar to that used for the well-established BREEAM EcoHomes system for new houses. It looks specifically at competing requirements for modern energy and acoustic standards, whole building performance and the effects of durability, reliability and maintainability of the building fabric. The report also examines the economic, environmental and social costs and benefits of retaining this part of the building stock and develops a methodology that can be used in the assessment process. It provides a framework that can be used both for large areas of housing, based on existing data, and for individual houses and small groups of a single house type. Three detailed case studies are included. 40 pages. NB This report is about assessing housing for refurbishment in cost/benefit terms - for technical guidance on repairing homes and improving energy efficiency, see BRE Good Repair Guides and BRE Good Building Guides (search under GRG or GBG) Contents of this report Preface Introduction Background to refurbishment Refurbishment of a four-storey tenement in Greenock, Scotland Developing a methodology Development of EcoHomes XB Developing EcoHomes XBC for the built heritage Defining benchmarks for pre-1919 housing using EcoHomes XBC Benchmarking pre-1919 housing using EcoHomes XBC actions and impacts Identifying the key actions in the refurbishment of pre-1914 housing Case Study 1: The Nelson Housing Market Regeneration Scheme Background The Housing Market Renewal Scheme - St Mary's Conservation Area The Adactus Project - Every Street Scope for further improvements in refurbishments in Nelson Case Study 2: The Flagship Project, Beaufort Gardens, London Case Study 3: The Nottingham Ecohome Conclusions References Annex A The ICOMOS Charter on Built Vernacular Heritage