A Cleaner, Greener, Freebridge

The government is set to increase housing targets by around 50% and toughen local affordability assessments this week in a new version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

by James Riding 29.07.24

Angela Rayner, the housing secretary and deputy prime minister, will announce an eight-week consultation on the updated NPPF on Tuesday, which is expected to raise mandatory housebuilding targets for councils by about 100,000 homes a year by changing the way local housing need is counted.

Reports in The Times and elsewhere suggested that Ms Rayner was also expected to tell councils to review green-belt protections if they cannot meet their housing need on brownfield land.

Currently, the NPPF assesses future housing need on population changes and local affordability. The government will change these affordability assessments to take account of how many people might move into an area if housing were cheaper.

As a result of these tougher assessments, council targets are likely to hit a total of 350,000 homes across the country, up from below 250,000 before the Conservatives dropped them in 2022.

Councils will also be required to demonstrate they have a five-year supply of land for new housing, and are unlikely to be able to use previous oversupply of housing to reduce future targets.

The new NPPF is also expected to include previously announced Labour policies, such as prioritising poor-quality ‘grey-belt’ land and introducing “golden rules” to ensure development contains affordable housing and benefits nature.

The changes to the NPPF are expected to be in place by the end of September.

Ms Rayner and Steve Reed, the environment secretary, are also planning to change nutrient-neutrality rules, which developers claim are blocking 100,000 homes.

Under the changes, developers will be able to start building housing that risks polluting rivers and work out how to deal with the problem during construction.

This could allow developers to discuss funding new wetlands to offset pollution from new homes during construction.

However, Labour has said that the new homes could only be occupied once mitigations were in place.

According to The Mirror, Labour is set to announce investment in social housing “later in the year”.

The government has already started to review Right to Buy discounts, having promised to lower them to 2010 levels.

The article also suggested the government would agree a new social housing rent settlement, stating that councils will be given assurances on the rent levels they can charge so they have the financial stability to borrow to build new homes.

In an article in The Guardian on 27 July, Ms Rayner said delivering social and affordable houses at scale was “my number-one priority”.

“It is also a crucial step on the path to 1.5 million homes, kick-starting the sector out of this slump,” she added.

“That’s why we will take action to inject confidence and certainty into the social housing system, so that councils and private providers can get back to building.”

Ms Rayner claimed that the current Affordable Homes Programme, launched in 2020, will not reach even three-quarters of its goal to deliver 180,000 homes.

She added: “We will deliver a generation of new large-scale communities; providing new jobs and opportunities by unlocking the potential of the towns and cities which are the engine rooms of our economy.”

Earlier this month, Inside Housing asked members of the sector what policies the new government could implement in its first 100 days to make an impact.

SHDF Wave 2.1 is a national scheme that aims to deliver warm and energy-efficient homes, while also helping reduce carbon emissions and help those living in social housing to tackle rapidly rising fuel bills and fuel poverty.

Freebridge received £1.323 million worth of funding and immediately pledged to match that from our own budget, making this piece of work worth around £2.7 million.

The project will enable Freebridge to continue to target properties that are the least energy efficient, with those meeting the criteria laid out by the Government for this funding.

99 properties have been identified to be part of this round of funding and Freebridge are working with E.on the delivery partner to roll out the improvements by March 2025.

The very first property on our list was on Alma Avenue in Terrington St Clement, so we thought we’d talk you through what this funding and work means for our customers.

In October, the process began with a Retrofit Assessment (RFA) to identify the potential improvement measures that we could undertake to improve the energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of the property from a band E to a band C.

Once the recommended measures were agreed by all, further technical surveys were then carried out at the property to calculate the sizing of the Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP), radiators (along with the most appropriate locations to place them), the number of Solar Photovoltaic (Solar PV) panels needed and the amount of additional insulation and ventilation that would also be added.

From our side, that ensured that accurate costings were produced and then subsequently approved - at which point installation works could start to be scheduled in with the customer.

There was still one more stage to complete before installation could begin, with the customer’s electricity supply needing to be updated from a single phase to a Double Pole Isolator (DPI) – which was required to run the new equipment.

With the final hurdle cleared, it was installation time for the customer! This included existing electric storage heating being removed and the new low carbon ASHP install, along with new radiators and associated pipework being fitted.

The new radiators are sized to a larger specification than you would typically find, which is because the system runs at a lower temperature than traditional heating. By ‘oversizing’ the radiators this provides a greater surface area to dissipate heat into the house…clever stuff!

The next phase of installation saw Solar PV panels added to the roof of the property to help generate electricity to run the new ASHP and to provide electricity to the tenant when heating isn’t required.

To finish, works in the loft space were completed and further insulation was added, with a ventilation upgrade also carried out – leaving the customer with a warmer and more efficient home!

Our Energy and Sustainability Manager Steven Elmore and Heating Manager John Gladwin were both at the property to see how the progress was going and to check in with the tenant. John will also be on hand to at the handover to assist and ensure that Freebridge also have full understanding of how the new system operates.

A delighted Steve said: “It’s an exciting week for Freebridge and this marks a significant step in our Wave 2.1 project.

“The tenant expressed how pleased he has been with how smoothly and quickly everything has been completed so far.

"He told me that everyone kept him well informed throughout the process, adding that the engineers completing his installation have been polite, courteous and have been keeping things neat and tidy while they work.

“He is looking forward to a warmer and more efficient home, as he had previously only been heating one room of his property at a cost of around £8 per day.”

We have completed 40 homes to date and we are well on our way in meeting our deadline of delivering warm and energy-efficient homes 99 Homes by March 2025. If you have time do take a look at the video on this page for more information.

Housing associations should cash in on new biodiversity rules by creating habitat banks and using the profits to lower residents’ service charges, experts have told Inside Housing.

by James Riding 29.07.24

Under English planning rules which came into force in February, developers must increase biodiversity on their sites by 10% or purchase Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units.

The government wants landowners to set up habitat banks to sell these BNG units to developers. Any biodiversity increases over 10% achieved on sites can also be turned into units and sold on.

“There is no reason, as large landowners, which many registered providers are, not to take advantage of the BNG market,” said Neil Toner, senior consultant at Devonshires, the law firm.

Most large housing associations “clock the importance of biodiversity”, he said, but they do not acknowledge that it could become “an income stream” that could be used to benefit residents.

“Everyone’s complaining about service charges… here would be a way of reducing people’s service charge by offsetting some of the cost that would otherwise be passed on to them for maintaining their estates,” he said.

This is because selling BNG units would “as a minimum” cover the landlords’ costs of greening their estates, which they would have spent anyway as part of improvement and maintenance works in many cases.

Across the sector, there are “definitely millions” of pounds to be made from habitat banks, he added.

Landowners that have already begun to sell BNG units include large family estates such as Belmont in North Somerset. Local authorities such as Plymouth City Council have set up subsidiaries to green their land and create habitat banks.

Hannah Langford, a partner at Devonshires, noted that “you’ve got to commit to” a habitat bank, as landowners are required to set aside their land for 30 years under a Section 106 agreement. However, she said, BNG “is in law now, so it’s not going away”.

Gresham House, the asset manager, has invested in habitat banks since 2021 through Environment Bank, one of its portfolio companies that helps landowners market BNG units.

“We are really supportive of biodiversity creation as a new business line for many people,” Ruth Murray, investment director of sustainable infrastructure at Gresham House, told Inside Housing.

However, faced with a choice between using part of their sites for additional biodiversity or more housing, housing associations should always maximise development land, she said. To sacrifice land for housing would be a “complete false economy”.

While creating a habitat bank “isn’t necessarily hard”, selling the credits was “actually quite complicated”, she said.

“Getting into that whole commercial sales cycle and having a sales team is another layer,” she added.

Profits to be made from BNG credits depend on the starting condition of the land, Ms Murray explained. “If they’ve got land that’s been sitting, just becoming biodiverse for many years because it’s really hard to develop, then you’ll probably get very little uplift.”

Landowners must also make sure they are delivering the right type of biodiversity for an area, she added, “to make sure you’re not building a white elephant”.

A spokesperson for Peabody said: “The housing sector has an important role to play in protecting and improving biodiversity in local areas.

“We’re keen to explore innovative ways to enhance habitats, including habitat banks, across a spectrum of shared open spaces in our neighbourhoods – from pocket parks in smaller developments, through to the 240 hectares of green space we own and manage in Thamesmead.

“While the potential of habitat banks to raise income is interesting, their real measure of success will arguably be the ecological value they bring.”