Climate Change and Planning

This has now percolated firmly into the planning system with the publication in December last year of the first statutory guidance on Planning and Climate Change.

The new guidance sits alongside existing national policies and has an immediate effect on all decisions.

It has close links with the Parliamentary Bill on Climate Change and complements initiatives such as the Code for Sustainable Homes, which will require all our new housing to be carbon neutral by 2016 at the latest (earlier in the case of housing grant aided by the government).

All new schemes need to show that they have fully considered the risk of flooding, both of the development itself and also on nearby properties.

Few applications of any size can now be submitted without a flood risk assessment and all schemes are expected to have considered sustainable urban drainage principles aimed at putting more water back into the land rather than into efficient but expensive pipe work.

The guidance requires all local planning authorities to rapidly set targets for the achievement of renewable energy usage in all new developments.

Much of the North East is already covered by a blanket requirement seeking at least ten per cent provision of renewable energy on major schemes. As local authorities progress their Local Development Frameworks, this might increase.

Generating renewable energy on site can be very challenging and far more thought needs to go into the planning and design process. Increasingly, councils want to see how it will be achieved at early planning stages and Design and Access statements, which are submitted with all new applications, must contain a blueprint for achieving it.

The Planning and Design Team at BHP is well placed to deal with this area, having the benefits of chartered architect David Mack to develop sustainable solutions.

Meeting the renewable agenda is challenging but with sound advice, new developments can be constructed which are cheaper to run and maintain as well as being kinder to the planet.

It is clear that the issue now forms one of the core components of the planning evaluation of a scheme. Proposals which show careful consideration of on-site energy generation will stand far greater chances of success than those which stay silent on the issue.

* Della Adams is a planning consultant with Blackett Hart & Pratt. For more information, contact her on (01325) 376440.