Green Homes vs. Gove

by Ioana Gherghel

Image: SPACE10

"Just to be clear, we do not want developers to build to higher sustainability standards. We only want these higher standards to apply if we, the Council, develop the plots."

This was a strange statement to hear from a public sector client we have a good, long-standing relationship with. Their values align with ours, they are forward-thinking, have never backed down on sustainability points before, and are highly supportive of active travel and ambitious low parking provisions.

Our discussion was about built fabric performance requirements on a large mixed-use development site which would be embedded in a document and adopted as statutory policy.

The design guidance we are developing is flexible and holds back on excessive detail to remain future-proof. We were not discussing unreasonable sustainability requirements, but encouraging developers to build to higher sustainability standards, which the Council clearly found viable enough to pledge itself to.

So why would a forward-thinking public authority with plenty of local support for sustainable development make such a statement?

When we challenged them, they shuffled and hesitated.

This is the mood the built environment industry has found itself in since December, when the government published a Written Ministerial Statement that limited Local Authorities from setting energy efficiency standards higher than national policy, regardless of local support.

Ambitious local authorities are now doubting themselves and getting uncomfortable when progressive plans are put on the table — even plans they felt good about six months ago. These processes take time. The current project has been underway for over two years, and the schedule for adopting this document times awkwardly with the imminent update to Planning Practice Guidance meant to reflect the December Ministerial Statement — a statement that already supersedes part of the Deregulation Act 2015 "Housing standards: streamlining the system."

Luckily campaigns like Good Law Project's "Green homes fit for the future" are calling out the government’s conflicting messaging, which only a couple of months prior published a plan to "put local people in control" and "invest in local people's priorities", not to mention its own Net Zero by 2050 legislation.

The Good Law Project took the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to court over its green homes policy and last week the High Court agreed to hear a judicial review on the case. Hopefully, the government will be held accountable and forced to make good on its pledge to enable local communities to be ambitious and build for the future.

More about the campaign at https://goodlawproject.org/campaign/green-homes/