Key headlines in the Labour manifesto included ‘Accelerating Net Zero,’ ‘Clean Power’ and ‘Get Britain Building again.’ Now the election is over, Envision have taken a look at the new government’s first actions, promises yet to be enacted, further action that is needed, and consider how the new Labour government will impact the sustainable building’s sector.
National Planning Policy Framework Consultation
At the end of July, the new government published their first draft of the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which is now open for consultation until 24th September. The revised document seeks to overhaul the current planning system, paving the way to meet their pledge of delivering 1.5 million homes over the next 5 years. They hope to achieve this through the reintroduction of mandatory housing targets for local authorities, and identifying ‘grey belt land’ for areas of new development. This reverses Michael Gove’s decision last year which saw housing targets become an “an advisory starting point.”
The new government say they will be ready to intervene to make tough decisions if areas fall behind their targets, and have pledged to recruit 300 new planning officers to help facilitate the proposed changes and to speed up the planning process.
Introduction of the Grey Belt
The draft NPPF proposes when brownfield development has been maximised and a local authority is still unable to meet their building targets then they should undertake a ‘Green Belt review,’ which will aim to free up grey belt land from the green belt in order to meet local needs. This marks a significant change from previous iterations of the NPPF which state changes to the Green Belt should be reserved to situations of ‘exceptional circumstances’.
“Grey Belt: For the purposes of Plan-making and decision-making, grey belt is defined as land in the Green Belt comprising Previously Developed Land and any other parcels and/or areas of Green Belt land that make a limited contribution to the five Green Belt purposes (as defined in para 140 of this Framework) but excluding those areas or assets of particular importance listed in footnote 7 of this Framework (other than land designated as Green Belt).”
Presumption for sustainable development
Another key change of the NPPF is the strengthening and reforming of ‘the presumption’ for sustainable development (PSD).
Currently this means that ‘all plans should promote a sustainable pattern of development that seeks to: meet the development needs of their area; align growth and infrastructure; improve the environment; mitigate climate change (including by making effective use of land in urban areas) and adapt to its effects.’ The main function of the presumption for sustainable development is to encourage planning permission to be granted where local plan policies are not up to date.
The introduction of more demanding targets for local authorities and the need to show a 5-year housing land supply at all times will mean the scope of the presumption for sustainable development will become more relevant until local authorities update their plans accordingly. There are also changes proposed to help ensure locational and design policies are considered for schemes that are utilising the presumption in order to secure approval, this aims to stop low quality, unsustainable development being approved.
With the discussed new targets and associated updates to NPPF, MP Clive Lewis described a ‘bonanza’ of upcoming business in the sustainable construction sector in a recent webinar with the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), not just for residential development but also associated commercial development.
With updates to the NPPF and local plans coming, sustainable planning policies are continuing to evolve. Envision offer a broad range of services to help make sense of these, and assist through design to ensure they are met. We provide end to end support from the Pre-Application stage through top post-construction to ensure all of our clients sustainability objectives are met.
Clean Power by 2030: Supporting Green Energy and the Environment
A key headline in Labour’s manifesto is the introduction of Great British Energy, a ‘publicly-owned clean generation company, that will harness the power of Britain’s sun, wind, and waves to cut energy bills and deliver energy security for our country.’
The updated NPPF will set new thresholds for onshore wind and solar generating stations to be Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs). These thresholds were initially set in the Planning Act 2008, and have since become outdated. With advances in technology solar panels are now more efficient, and wind turbines larger and much more powerful than their predecessors. These advances in technology now means many smaller scale on-shore wind and solar projects fall with in the 50MW NSIP threshold.
In the consultation document the government are now proposing to:
a. set the threshold at which onshore wind projects are determined as Nationally Significant at 100MW; and
b. increase the threshold at which solar projects are determined as Nationally Significant to 150MW.
These measures aim to ensure projects follow a “a proportionate process to secure consent,” and help the government meet their manifesto pledge of doubling onshore wind and tripling solar power by 2030.
These plans will see the carbon factor of grid supplied electricity continue to fall, thereby increasing the green credentials of all electric heating solutions in both residential and commercial developments.
Warm Homes Plan
In addition to the revised NPPF another key policy proposal is the Warm Homes Plan, which Labour claim will “cut household bills by up to £500 every year for families.”
This will be done through introducing energy savings measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation upgrades, increased access to renewable technologies such as solar panels. They aim to do this by giving devolved government and local authorities the “power and resources” to upgrade cold homes.
It is anticipated that the next fiscal event will outline exactly how this will be funded.
Further Action Required
Clarification is needed from the new government on how they will interact with the new Future Homes Standard (FHS), which is set to become mandatory in 2025. The FHS would reduce carbon emissions in new homes by 75-80% compared to homes built under current building regulations. A government spokesperson has said “We fully support the need for low carbon homes and will review proposals and feedback from the future homes standard consultation in due course.” With 2025 fast approaching it is crucial for the new government to take it’s stance on this long-awaited and progressive standard.
The Labour government also need to outline how they will interact with the proposed Amendment ‘Part Z’ to Building Regulations which addresses whole life carbon and embodied carbon emissions within major developments. If enacted this would accelerate the consideration of embodied carbon and production of whole life carbon and circular economy assessments across the country, something that is currently only seen within GLA planning policy.
Furthermore, last year the Carbon Emissions (Buildings) Bill, ‘A Bill to require the whole-life carbon emissions of buildings to be reported; to set limits on embodied carbon emissions in the construction of buildings; and for connected purposes,’ got to its second reading in the commons.
It is imperative the new government sets outs it’s plans for reducing embodied carbon emissions, which make up 20% of the UK’s built environment emissions.