The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) has published a green paper proposing a key leadership role for cities in supporting the delivery of sustainable new homes and communities.
The paper follows the scaling back of ambitions for zero carbon and sustainable new homes by national government in recent years. 2015 saw the scrapping of the Zero Carbon 2016 target and the wind-down of the Code for Sustainable Homes.
The UK-GBC paper examines what local authorities in the UK can do, under their existing powers, to improve the standards of new-build housing in their area, as well as what they can do as landowners. It suggests that local authorities can take a lead by, for example, requiring higher building standards on their own land, using tools like Open Book Viability, running energy companies, and a range of other policy innovations.
Julie Hirigoyen, Chief Executive, UK Green Building Council said: “In the current policy landscape, with ambition in sustainable housing at a national level falling short, it is vital we consider how local and city authorities can play a leadership role. This is the only way we will meet our stretching carbon reduction targets and deliver genuinely sustainable places.”
The paper is currently out for consultation with UK-GBC members and other interested parties until Monday 20th February and will inform UK-GBC’s work with local authorities, central government and industry in the upcoming city-region mayoral elections and beyond.
The full green paper, ‘The role of local leadership in creating sustainable homes’, is available here.
