Introduction

In 2005 Greatest Planet began a major campaign to persuade the Government to

publish a comprehensive Planning Policy Statement which set out how the planning

system could reduce carbon emissions.

In December 2006 the Government published a package of new measures including a draft Planning Policy Statement and the new Code for Sustainable Homes.

Measured against the best Local Authorities, such as Woking and Merton, the new Planning Policy Statement will make little difference.  But for the vast majority of local councils – who are doing little or nothing about climate change – it should result in

dramatic changes.

The new Planning Policy Statement should help to reinforce these arguments, and crucially, give them the weight of Government backing. The first and most important aspect of the new Planning Policy Statement is its impact on the culture of decision makers.  At present many local councils do not consider climate change when making decisions on individual applications, nor do they have specific policies on how to take climate change impacts into account through the planning system.

This new statement makes it absolutely clear to planners and politicians that theymust put climate at the top of the planning agenda. They must take action do reduce the cause of climate change by

• having a good understanding of baseline CO2 emissions and the impact of new development on these emissions (See Para 12 of the new Planning Policy Statement)

• Encourage strong community participation in climate solutions

• Reducing the need to travel by car and reducing the amount of road freight

• Shaping places that reduce the need to travel by promoting mixed-use development

• Actively promoting micro renewables in new development

• Actively promoting decentralised energy production and of medium and large scale renewable energy projects

• Removing unnecessarily restrictive policies which prevent the delivery of renewable technologies

If you are writing to your council about a planning matter or the redrafting of the local planning documents, the new Planning Policy Statement is a useful resource to quote from.

How does the Planning Policy Statement help us to adapt to impacts of climate

change?

Adaptation is an increasingly complex issue and ranges from enhancing the resilience of natural habitats to the need for urban cooling by preserving green open space. Local councils should be thinking about all of these issues when planning for new developments or considering planning applications (see Para 6). One word of warning. Some councils think that adaptation is all they need to do on climate change. In fact the reduction of CO2 and the adaptation to the unavoidable effects of climate change must be achieved together.

Will this Planning Policy Statement help us refuse individual carbon intensive

development?

Yes.  The clear policy direction of the Planning Policy Statement is to promote the reduction of carbon emissions.  So once these policies have been incorporated into Local Development Plan documents any new development will have to be assessed against these policies. In addition this Planning Policy Statement reinforces the importance of climate as a material consideration.   As ever, there are a couple of big qualifications to this. 

How can the new Planning Policy Statement help us to promote renewables

projects?

The Planning Policy Statement provides strong support for renewable projects and complements the contents of Planning Policy Statement 22 (Renewable Energy). The Planning Policy Statement does not create a free for all for wind projects and does stress

importance of statutory designations. However, it does make clear that given the imperative to increase renewable energy, unreasonable restrictions should not be applied to new schemes which can make a real difference.  Paragraph 22 of the new Planning Policy Statement makes clear that local councils 'should look favourably on proposals for renewable energy, including on sites not identified in development plan documents’

Does the new PPS still allow Local Authorities to ask for higher standards of

building performance than contained in building regulations?

There has been intense lobbying from the building industry to have just one national standard on building quality - and not to allow Local Authorities to deviate from this. Greatest Planet and others have argued that Local Authorities should have flexibility to push for higher

standards where this is justified. The result of this debate is a compromise. Local Authorities can adopt policies in their plans to achieve higher levels than required by building regulations - but they should stick within national code standards rather than inventing their own requirements. For new homes local standards should be based on the

Code for Sustainable Homes.’ This position is plainly not ideal because Local Authorities must adhere to the standards set within the Code for Sustainable Homes.  Industry will also be able to argue about the viability of such policy in the context of other Government policy to expand housing provision. However, the Code does deliver carbon zero development at Code level 6. The question is has the Government restricted the scope of Local Authorities to deliver zero carbon development earlier than the 2016 dead line?

So what does the new policy say about CO2 targets ?

The Planning Policy Statement makes clear that as a minimum the planning system is required to implement the Government's national overall target for CO2 reduction including the 60 per cent reduction by 2050 (Para 3).  It makes it clear that regional plans must have a CO2 trajectory for all new commercial and residential development and this must be measured against the CO profile of the region to give a greater understanding  of how much CO2 is being reduced.

In addition to the national targets the Planning Policy Statement suggests that regional plans use interim yardstick targets to help measure carbon performance.  The Planning Policy Statement is less clear about how targets should be handled at the local level.  This is partly because under the new system the regional plan (Regional Spatial Strategy) is directly applicable to all local decisions.  So if your regional plan has a carbon reduction policy it must be reflected in you local council’s plan. The targets in the regional plans must be evidence based and must be related to a reasonable understanding of what regional planning policy can deliver. For example an aspirational target on dramatic CO2 reductions in the aviation sector is unlikely to be acceptable.

What is the Code for Sustainable Homes?

The Code for Sustainable Homes sets our broad environmental standards including energy efficiency, water consumption and the use of materials.  The Code has six levels, with Level 6 being carbon zero.  The Code is voluntary but will be made mandatory through building regulations in 2016.

Okay so what’s wrong with the new policy package?

We have two major areas of criticism about the overall climate package.

1)  The 2016 deadline for carbon zero development in the Code is too late. Research carried out the Greatest Planet by the Tyndall Centre makes clear the need for significant carbon reductions from 2012.   If we are serious about meeting our mid-century targets for carbon reduction we have to move to carbon zero development at a much faster pace.

2)  The package focuses on new developments and there is an urgent need to develop effective packages to retrofit existing development with good energy-efficiency and renewable energy technology. The Planning Policy Statement does talk about the

opportunities of linking existing development to decentralised renewable energy systems which are being developed for new housing. The Government is also planning to produce a draft standard for commercial development this year. Much of our criticism of the Planning Policy Statement stems from the very dense language. The more detailed practice guidance will be produced with the final statement at the end of 2007.

Conclusion

The new Planning Policy Statement is not perfect but it will make a big difference to many local councils allowing for a better and more informed debate. Our role nationally and locally is to continue pushing for faster implementation of climate solutions and a better awareness amongst decision-makers of the imperative of reducing carbon emissions. Local action working with your local council is one of the vital ways you can make a difference.