New planning guidance in Nottingham tackles carbon emissions

Nottingham City Council has brought in new planning guidance which tackles carbon emissions to fulfil ambitions of being carbon-neutral by 2028.

The Informal Planning Policy Guidance for commercial and residential buildings proposes a series of measures developers can use to reduce carbon emissions in their plans.

This guidance also brings in new rules that all future planning applications of commercial properties of 1000m2 or ten or more homes need to be supported with Carbon Reduction/Energy statements.

These must set out how buildings will use energy and how they will help the council to reach it’s carbon-neutral targets.

Cllr Pavlos Kotsonis, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture and Planning at Nottingham City Council, said: ‘Our pledge is bold and forward-thinking, but we know that its delivery in the city will depend on partners and organisations across a number of sectors coming on board to help – we can’t do it alone.

‘Given that buildings are one of the most significant sources of carbon emissions, the Planning Guidance is an important piece of work undertaken by the council to allow us to ensure due consideration is given to environmental measures.

‘It will have an immediate impact on emissions as developers are now required to demonstrate how their buildings use energy, while it strongly promotes low-carbon methods.

‘There is a distinct lack of this in national Government legislation at the moment and, while this local policy is informal, it will allow us to effect meaningful change through negotiation and consent.

‘Moving forward, the council will be progressing a Supplementary Planning Document to support its approach to carbon neutrality and formulating new policies to tackle the issue in its emerging Strategic Plan, which will secure increasingly sustainable and carbon-neutral development.’

The government’s National Planning Policy Framework currently gives local authorities little powers to insist on environmental considerations throughout the planning and building process.

It’s hoped these new measures by Nottingham City Council will help to reduce the negative impact of traditional buildings which consume 40% of total fossil fuel energy in the UK.

Photo by Tom Podmore