Councillor says developers cannot be forced to put in extra environmental measures

Carolyn Healy, Telford and Wrekin’s cabinet member responsible for climate change, said local authorities can’t force housebuilders to apply higher standards, and said she would like to see regulations amended.

She was speaking to the Environment Scrutiny Committee after an update on the council’s Becoming Carbon Neutral plan, which included the energy-saving features of homes built by council-owned housing provider Nuplace Ltd.

Committee member Tim Nelson welcomed the fact that the council was setting an example, but added that companies making “millions if not billions” had money available to match its standards.

Communities, Customer and Commercial Services director Fliss Mercer told the committee a 46-home Nuplace development at Southwater Way, near the Telford town centre Asda branch, had won planning permission in September and would be equipped with solar panels and electric vehicle charging points.

She added an upcoming application for 70 more homes at Donnington Wood Way, Muxton, would include those features and “go a little bit further”.

Ms Mercer said: “We’re going to be having time- and temperature-controlled heating, waste water heat recovery and we’re also going to have a small pilot within that scheme of 15 properties where we’re going to trial battery storage.

“We’re going to then monitor the impact of that pilot with a view to then incorporating those features into future schemes. I think that’s a really good statement of intent.”

Cllr Nelson, who represents Newport North and West said he was “interested and encouraged” to see Nuplace used this way.

Target

He asked: “Can the council start to explore how we expect and require the same standards of private developers who are going to make a bundle of money – millions if not billions – out of building thousands of houses?

“If the council doesn’t require them to do more than a minimum, they won’t.”

Cllr Healy said: “I agree with you, housebuilders are raking profits in, but when they put in a planning application they put in viability reports that say they are not and that they can’t meet the kind of things we want to ask them to do.

“Under the current planning regulations we can’t obligate them.”

She said building standards would need to be changed.

“The government has set a target for changing those, but that is few years away,” Cllr Healy said.

“Personally, I would like to see us all lobbying for that to be brought forward so we can do that sooner because, when we try to have those negotiations with developers currently they say it’s not viable, they can’t deliver it and actually they don’t have to, and if we force them we could end up in a planning inquiry and probably lose.

“So it is a real challenge to get that, which is why we’re trying to do it ourselves on Nuplace where we’ve got some level of control because it’s our own project.”