ROOF Blog

An eco-village in South Gloucestershire, which has been billed as England’s first large scale zero carbon development, has been given full planning permission. Hanham Hall, a development between Barratt Developments and the Homes and Communities Agency will have 195 zero-carbon homes built to the highest level 6 standards, and will be run day to day by a community owned and run trust.

A report into identifying and overcoming barriers in the delivery of zero-carbon homes by 2016 was released yesterday. The report found that people were unsure of the regulations, but a majority wanted the government to legislate for higher energy efficiency in homes.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has said that government targets to make all new homes zero carbon by 2016 are not realistic. RICS said the government will struggle to meet its target, as building zero carbon homes is currently too expensive, but a 70 per cent reduction could be achievable through building energy efficient homes with access to on site technologies. A spokesperson for RICS said this was a ‘pragmatic solution’ to reducing our carbon footprint given the current recession.

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has launched a new initiative to highlight how going low-carbon can deliver affordable homes. The sustainable cities initiative aims to help local authorities create better places to live. It has published a series of proposals on sustainable neighbourhoods, energy performance and efficiency, planning for climate change and green infrastructure.

A zero carbon eco-house has been built based on design from the Middle Ages. The framework uses timbrel vaulting, a medieval technique from 14th century Spain, that creates a lightweight curved roof which retains heat. The roof has been covered with earth and plants, to maintain the inside temperature. Modern technologies, such as solar panels and triple glazing complete the design. The house comes at a price, though – it took a year to build and cost the owner £800,000.

An all-party parliamentary group on sustainable housing has been launched. The group’s remit includes improving the environmental performance of existing housing stock and implementing the zero carbon policy for new homes. The group is headed by two former housing ministers – Nick Raynsford and David Curry.

Housing minister Margaret Beckett today established the government consultation process for making all new homes zero carbon from 2016, adding the government was ‘absolutely committed’ to the 2016 target. The proposals include setting a minimum level of carbon reduction that developers must achieve through, for example improved insulation or providing onsite renewable energy; requiring a greatly increased level of energy efficiency in new homes; allowing developers to tackle carbon emissions by choosing from a list of ‘allowable solutions’ such as providing energy efficient appliances; and setting a limit on the amount expected to be spent on these allowable solutions. Consultation runs until March next year.

The Times has learnt that only 15 houses qualified in the first year of a £15 million project to waive stamp duty on the building of hundreds of zero-carbon homes. Critics of the scheme said it failed because the government’s specifications for a zero-carbon home are not practical and ‘too restrictive’, and have questioned the government’s plans that all new homes should be constructed to a zero-carbon standard by 2016. Opponents have said that it would be cheaper and better to subsidise improvements to the air-tightness of existing buildings, but a Treasury spokesperson said that the stamp duty relief has always expected to be picked up in small numbers in the first few years.