Agenda item

To receive a briefing paper from the Climate and Sustainability Specialist

The Group agreed to deal with agenda items 9 and 10 together.

The Group had before it, and NOTED, two updates* from the Climate and Sustainability Specialist.

The briefing paper tackled the subject of climate change as a material consideration in the planning process. The paper highlighted what Mid Devon was doing as a local authority covering a range of areas, energy efficiency standards, embodied carbon as a consideration and a list of what other authorities were doing.

Discussion took place with regard to:

·         Local Authorities were not given the freedom to shape their policies to go beyond national standards (some exceptions are allowed when properly evidenced etc).  Planning Officers would apply whatever legislation and Policy Guidance was in place at the time of the application.

·         The Forward Planning Team asked that all Councillors engaged with the new Forward Plan and with the Planning Policy Advisory Group (PPAG) and Plan Mid Devon, to help shape policy.

·         A new Written Ministerial Statement discouraged Local Planning Authorities from raising energy standards for new homes without strong evidence.

·         If the Local Authority raised local building standards it could have an impact on Embodied Carbon (the impacts of materials, construction methods, transport etc.). An issue perhaps too complex an issue for Mid Devon to manage.

·         The impact that increasing the cost of housing had on the number of houses that could be provided for communities.

·         If Mid Devon tightened up on standards then they could put a lag into the economy. We probably needed these issues to be dealt with at a national level where it would drive the economy and await information from the research institutions.

·         The latest written guidance from Central Government needed to be clarified as it would seem that local authorities cannot raise their own energy efficiency standards from new housing without doing a very difficult and time expensive calculation which may or may not prove the viability of what was being suggested.

·         If so, could Mid Devon raise criteria for Embodied Carbon? Was there any scope that in the initial sustainability assessment of development applications, could we not validate planning applications which did not conform to certain sustainability criteria?

·         Should the Council consider having two approaches; 1. Current guidance 2. Policies that the Council would really like to see if the National Planning Policy Framework was relaxed, so that they could be put into the local plan? This was an interesting challenge to put to forward planners – how could we do this?

·         Exeter City Council is pulling it into their own planning policy a “just in case policy” anticipating future standards coming into place.

·         Embodied Carbon – as there were no restrictions, there should be room to include this in the Council’s plan although it would need to be strongly evidenced.

·         The Council had published free resources to help builders and developers identify affordable ways to achieve low carbon / Net Zero new build and retrofit. (Net Zero Carbon Toolkit; Net Zero Housing Assessment Tool.)

·         PPAG, 15 years ago, tried to agree whether new build residences should have solar voltaic cells and heat pumps, the Council was told at that time that it was not possible to have its own separate non-national guidelines. Also it related to building control and not planning. Mid Devon is different to other authorities where the Council is such a large rural authority. The district doesn’t have the infrastructure to charge electric vehicles (ev’s). The district is a special case and should be allowed to improve their energy systems.

·         Insulation, heat recovery, heat pumps.

·         Could the Council get an assessment of what it was likely to cost to build in those higher standards because it would be much cheaper to build them in at the building stage than it would be to retrofit at a later stage. It would assist in demonstrating the through-life cost to the occupiers of these houses.

·         Encouraging developers to adopt “Green Policies”.

·         Promoting the “Z Pods” – the design and technology was fantastic.

·         The Future Homes and Buildings Standards: 2023 consultation - GOV.UK consultation was live.  Central Government were consulting on future homes standards and future building standards, the Council could engage with that consultation.

·         Retrofitting was a massive task even set against just new homes. However, there was also massive skills and investment potential. There were millions of homes in Mid Devon that would need retrofitting.

·         The Climate and Sustainability Officer was asked to respond to the Government Consultation on “Future Homes”. Would it be possible for him to ask if the standards could be improved and the statement made that the Council would like to see more ambitious options so that our legal targets of meeting Net Zero by 2050 nationally could be met or moved towards.

Regarding Energy statistics

·      A mixed story on Renewable Energy and Community Energy - big growth in solar; others e.g. wind power at a standstill.

·         Would it be possible to calculate the current district requirement for energy and project a mix to enable the district to be self-sufficient in 2030?

·         The Climate and Sustainability Officer had been joining a Devon local area energy planning group regarding future energy scenarios, they were trying to generate some investible projects with achieving net-zero in mind.

·         Hydro Energy was a small element but it was always there. The Council had looked at this in the past but as solar power was a lower risk the Council had prioritised that. If there was a view that at community scale that Hydro Energy was something worth-while and could attract some kind of Community Partnership investment in that technology then it could be done in various ways, (it was a very complex area), but at a lower scale then the Climate and Sustainability Officer could look at that. An energy consultant had told him that hydro-electric was the most risky of all the renewable energy options not least, in the damage that it may do to the river system.

·         What would be Mid Devon area’s energy needs?  If the Council had a good estimate of that then they could plan energy supply over the next ten years. The Climate and Sustainability Officer was asked to request the data.

·         Devon Climate Emergency were already tracking demand.

·         What was the prospect for Wind Energy, it needed a change in the National Planning Policy Guidelines, public perception had already changed.

·         A Local Energy Plan was about the whole mix of energy production.

·         National Grid – could the Council put any pressure on them to increase the number of connections for power suppliers? – That was unlikely but the Council could keep National Grid informed.

Note:   (1) *updates previously circulated.

            (2) Cllr M. Binks left the meeting at 6.40pm