Agenda item

Zero Carbon Housing

To update the Growth Board on zero carbon housing technology and consider wider opportunities for Oxfordshire.

 

Minutes:

The Growth Board considered a report summarising the emerging best practice and challenges around both the provision of zero carbon housing and the retrofitting of the existing housing stock. It set out a series of draft recommendations detailing how the Board could support this agenda. In presenting the report, Caroline Green (Assistant Chief Executive, Oxford City Council) highlighted the following key points:

 

·           The Growth Board’s Housing Advisory Sub-Group had contributed to the identification of areas of best practice in relation to the zero-carbon agenda – in addition to the challenges it poses for local authorities.

·           The decarbonisation of housing was a significant challenge – bold and decisive action would be required at both a local and national level. As HM Government was expected to provide additional policy direction on this matter, it was considered timely for the Board to be discussing what actions it could take to support the decarbonisation of housing.

·           The focus of the report was on the challenges and opportunities presented by moving to zero carbon housing. While the retrofitting of existing stock would be a huge undertaking, ensuring that all new homes were zero carbon could significantly reduce the cost of future remedial work.

·           Oxfordshire had the opportunity to make a significant contribution to zero carbon housing (including as part of the wider Oxford to Cambridge Arc). Within the county, there were already numerous examples that could provide invaluable lessons going forwards.

·           An appreciable shift in current policy and practice would be required to address some of the existing system-wide challenges and barriers to zero carbon housing. Local authorities would also have to consider how to balance the move towards zero carbon alongside their other obligations.

·           While zero carbon housing currently had higher upfront costs, these were offset by lower running expenses. The challenge was, therefore, to provide an incentive for landlords (private and public sector) to decarbonise.

·           The supply of energy, and the relationship between housing and the overall energy strategy, needed to be reviewed.

·           Public awareness around zero carbon housing needed to be significantly improved.

 

Members of the Growth Board welcomed the report and in discussion raised the following points:

 

·           It was important to act in a timely manner - every new house that was not zero carbon was undesirable.

·           Public awareness would be crucially important

·           Developer contributions were an area that might be explored in the context of reducing the barrier of higher upfront costs e.g. a potential zero Community Infrastructure Levy rating for zero carbon homes.

·           Greater consideration needed to be given to OxLEP’s work around clean growth.

·           There was a lack of incentives for mass markets conventional builders to switch to zero carbon housing provision. HM Government should be lobbied to address this e.g. through reform of building regulations. While it was expected that the proposed Future Homes Standard would address some of these issues, there were concerns that this would not go far enough. Further, the creation of a national standard might also remove local authorities’ ability to set more stringent targets. 

·           There needed to be a genuine choice for consumers between conventionally built houses and zero carbon. It had to be recognised that, given the higher upfront costs of zero carbon, there was currently no market incentive to buyers.

·           The financial crash had led to the withdrawal of previous proposals to introduce higher standard building regulations. It was, therefore, important to note that HM Government’s focus for the foreseeable future would be on the Covid-19 emergency – this would affect their capacity in responding to lobbying.

·           It would be necessary to address skills shortages and capacity issues in the construction industry.

·           Homes England did not set policy. Its role was to advise HM Government and deliver upon priorities with partners (including those in Oxfordshire). Homes England was currently working to promote and develop modern methods of construction as a requirement for land disposals.

 

RESOLVED: That Growth Board partners:

1.     Make the case to Government for clear and ambitious national standards that set a long-term trajectory for minimum standards to 2050 accompanied by investment and incentives for local authorities and developers to move more quickly to higher standards.

 

2.     Champion the exchange of good practice and guidance on sustainable and zero-carbon construction, to promote uptake and set local expectations.

 

3.     Explore opportunities to scale up low carbon technologies through Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and work with Homes England and developers to develop a pipeline of sites for MMC.

 

4.     Include higher energy efficiency and design standards as an objective of the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 as the earliest opportunity to achieve weight in the planning system and consider what can be done in advance of the Plan to set higher expectations of standards (for example through shared evidence base for local plans and guidance).

 

5.     Make the case to Government for sustained incentives, investment guidance and support for local retrofit programmes for existing homes, including sustained employment and skills development incentives to boost capacity in the sector.

 

6.     Support public facing campaigns that raise awareness of what households can do to reduce energy consumption in their own homes, the benefits of energy efficient homes and lifestyle adaptations to make them most effective.

Supporting documents:

 

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