Watching the proverbial paint dry doesn’t normally set pulses racing but one can imagine the US researchers responsible for producing the new super-white sunlight-reflecting paint which grabbed headlines recently may have other ideas. It’s hoped the paint's cooling properties will join a growing stock of solutions to help mitigate the impact of the built environment on the natural world.

Since 2018 around 75 per cent of local authorities in the UK have declared a climate emergency, many setting ambitious targets for lowering emissions.  Exactly how this will shape future development is unclear but local plans will be a key driver of change, requiring developers to embrace decarbonisation in order to help achieve net zero. 

Among carbon policies in Reading’s adopted local plan, for example, new buildings must be orientated to maximise opportunities for natural heating and ventilation. In addition, all new housing must hit at least a 19 per cent improvement on the carbon emissions target set out in the 2013 Building Regulations. In Oxford meanwhile, the local plan adopted last year states residential and other forms of development must achieve at least a 40 per cent improvement on the target.

Local plans are pushing ahead and will be a vital mechanism for delivering climate goals. Evidently, however, higher environmental standards will place increased financial demands on developers, and in lower value areas could limit the delivery of other forms of developer contributions including affordable housing. It’s important, therefore, that policies are underpinned by viability assessments to ensure much-needed housing, including affordable tenures, isn’t adversely affected.

The planning system has a role to play beyond regulating the design and specification of new development. It can help limit transport emissions by encouraging growth in locations that are accessible by sustainable methods of travel, but our research shows that between 2015 and 2019 fewer than half of homes gaining full consent were within a one-mile radius of a train or underground station and 6 per cent were over five miles away. 

What’s more, rather than being large enough to support local facilities, distant sites tended to be smaller scale with 75 per cent of those gaining full consent over five miles from a train station having capacity for fewer than 100 homes.  Similarly more than half of consented sites over one mile from an existing urban settlement had capacity for fewer than 50. All this is likely to favour the car.

The concept of the 15-minute city which moves away from a zoned planning approach to create a neighbourhood in which residents can live, work and relax all within a short walk or cycle ride, is a way to combat this. Indeed the tide could be about to turn back towards building more housing in urban areas with the Government’s introduction of a 35 per cent uplift to the housing need figure in England’s 20 biggest towns and cities, partly to maximise access to existing infrastructure. What impact this direction of travel will have on sustainability and overall housing numbers remains to be seen.

Further information

Contact Emily Williams  

Savills Spotlight: Property and Carbon