The best way to zero gains

No way

Tim Rotheray, Micropower Council

With a target of 80 per cent emission reduction by 2050, the government has stated that all homes will be ‘near zero carbon’ by then. Tackling existing homes clearly presents an immense challenge and it is not surprising that the government is seeking innovative ways to fund it.

One proposal is to allow new builds to achieve zero carbon status, in part, through retrofitting energy efficiency measures in existing homes. The appeal of such a policy is clear: the developer would pay for the retrofit work and use the projected carbon savings to help achieve ‘zero carbon’ status at less cost.

However, such a policy resolves a short-term problem only to create a long-term one. Developers would build new homes to a lower standard and then cherry pick the cheapest retrofit options in surrounding homes. New homes would not be truly zero carbon and would require retrofitting in the future to meet overall household emissions targets.

Existing homes would be only partially retrofitted and more expensive retrofit options, to achieve a near zero carbon status, would still need to be funded through another policy. The short-term cost savings to developers would lead to greater overall cost to achieve a near zero carbon housing stock by 2050.

The two agendas should remain distinct. Zero carbon homes should not achieve their status through offsetting their emissions and clear, long-term policies for delivering retrofit should be developed. Achieving zero carbon status through retrofit is no more than a clever carbon accounting policy, temporarily delaying costs and challenges for the future.

For sure

Kate Henderson, Town & Country Planning Association

The government’s hierarchy approach to zero carbon homes places a new emphasis on the role of planning, where any emissions of carbon dioxide not dealt with onsite through energy efficiency and renewable energy will be dealt with through a range of good quality ‘allowable solutions’.

The TCPA welcomes the option of retrofitting the existing nearby housing stock as an allowable solution, where zero carbon new homes provide the potential to fund community-scale low and zero carbon energy projects. This is consistent with our approach that new development should, where possible, help regenerate existing homes and communities.

During these challenging economic times, planners should seize the opportunity on infrastructure planning and delivery - through activities such as embedding the supplement to Planning Policy Statement 1 on planning and climate change into their local development plans - to ensure that any new development coming forward injects investment into retrofitting measures for the existing housing stock.

Arguably, without that new development it is going to be much harder for an existing community to achieve the standard of retrofitting that we need to avert climate change.

In addition, we not only need more zero and low carbon buildings (both new homes and retrofitting of existing stock) but these need to be communities in sustainable locations, served by low carbon infrastructure, which is resilient to changes in climate, energy supply and costs.

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