Overview
England suffers from chronic housing shortages and every main political party has committed to building more homes. Where these homes are distributed is of crucial importance to both climate and nature. There is a well documented relationship between dense urban housing and lower carbon emissions, and sparing land for nature is good for biodiversity.
Current planning rules lead to car-dependent developments on the urban fringe. Despite high demand for well connected homes in urban areas, supply is constricted through a number of mechanisms.
This project aims to uncover these mechanisms and explore how housing needs can be met in the best places for the environment.
Unlocking development
How street votes could help to protect the environment
Street votes could unlock community consent for building more homes in the places that people want to live. By densifying suburbs, we can avoid locking people into carbon-intensive lifestyles and help to protect nature at the same time.
Build up: the environmental case for new homes in sustainable locations
For decades, England has failed to build enough homes for its growing and ageing population. Chronic undersupply has contributed to the country having some of the most unaffordable homes in the developed world, which has been a drag on productivity and causes a political headache for any party wishing to win over younger voters.
Grappling with planning policy is not for the faint hearted but building more homes in environmentally preferable places is socially, economically and ecologically necessary.
Green Alliance’s consultation response: proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system
To help meet the government’s house building target of 1.5 million new homes by the end of the parliament, Angela Rayner announced changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which the government has consulted on.
More homes, particularly affordable homes need to be built quickly to help address the UKs housing crisis, but changes to the NPPF alone won’t achieve the government’s house building target.
This consultation response details Green Alliance’s stance of the proposed changes to the NPPF, including:
- Weakening the Green Belt which risks undermining its purpose;
- Densifying the UK’s towns and cities;
- New homes to be located near existing public transport and active travel infrastructure, to prevent car dependent communities;
- Supporting the increased threshold for solar and onshore wind energy project before entering the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project process;
- Removing the presumption in favour of fossil fuels and more
Transforming existing UK housing
The UK has the least energy efficient housing stock in Europe, leading to high energy bills and difficult choices for the poorest households. A new approach is needed to drive a transformation to warmer, low energy homes that emit less carbon.
Reinventing retrofit: scaling up home energy efficiency in the UK
Over 3,000 people die annually due to cold homes, which are also a major source of carbon emissions. To meet climate targets, the UK aims to retrofit all homes to EPC band C standard by 2035, but current policies are insufficient.
In this report, we look at a new approach to retrofit known as Energiesprong (energy leap), which could provide the transformation needed in the domestic buildings sector.
