Who is RPS Group?

Family founded and owned, RPS Group has become one of the UK’s largest independent plumbing and heating contractors.  

RPS Group specialises in domestic heating services, including renewables, M&E and heating maintenance services, delivering contacts for private and public sector clients across the North of England.

In 2022 the company entered the UK’s biggest low-carbon social housing retrofit project to date in partnership with Together Housing, and by 2024 RPS Group was completing 6,000 renewable home installations a year across its clients.

Having invested in people, skills and the latest technology, RPS Group knew it was ready to go to the next level, but it needed to achieve greater awareness and a positive profile in the industry to meet its growth ambitions.

How Frontier PR Helped

Frontier PR understood the forces driving the decarbonation of housing and the complex, sometimes polarised debate about the issue in the media.

We set out to turn RPS Group into a thought-leader on the topic, playing to the company’s strengths and supporting its business ambitions.

We advised RPS Group to lead on key issues, such as the need to retrofit social housing at scale, the challenge of developing people and skills, and the role the green economy can play in supporting UK growth while also benefiting local people and communities.

To boost the campaign Frontier PR worked closely with Together Housing to develop a strong narrative on how RPS Group supported the organisation and its residents to make the transition from gas boilers to heat pumps.

This involved highlighting the benefits of the technology to the landlord and its residents, demystifying the topic and addressing some of the negative opinions often seen in the media.

By creating advocacy through commentary and case studies, Frontier PR elevated RPS Group’s experience and expertise with a campaign that tapped into the news agenda.

We began an extensive media relations programme, systematically targeting key business and trade publications with case studies, insight and thought leadership.

We seized the news agenda, engaging with the media on timely issues such as the award of the social housing decarbonisation fund, new government housing targets and tackling myths around heat pumps.

In addition to media relations Frontier PR also drove a series of high-profile award submissions, all of which resulted in RPS Group being shortlisted.

The Results

As of April 2025, Frontier PR has secured around £400,000 worth of media coverage for RPS Group, which translates in to 20 individual pieces of coverage in just over 12-months.

This quality, high-value media coverage has established RPS Group as a leading thinker and expert on these issues, elevating its profile above many of its contractor rivals.

As well as coverage in the key housing media, Frontier PR also ensured RPS Group was profiled in the wider business and construction media, including The Yorkshire Post, Business Green and Construction News.

This has also given the company’s owner, Graham Rothwell, a valuable voice on key issues, not just on behalf of RPS Group, but also as part of Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s Retrofit Task Force.