Select Committee on Trade and Industry Written Evidence


APPENDIX 69

Memorandum by the Borough Council of Wellingborough

LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE

  Our Members recently requested that I write to our local Member of Parliament, (Mr Peter Bone, MP for Wellingborough and Rushden) to raise in the House the matter of the difficulties encountered by Local Authorities when seeking the delivery of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures/within their areas (see letter attached as Annex 1). There are two specific areas that are currently causing concern, namely:

    —  Target setting for renewable energy/energy efficiency provision on new developments.

    —  Micro-renewables (such as micro-turbines) and the Development Control process.

  Mr Bone has informed us that you are leading an investigation into these issues through a Select Committee and suggested that we present our views through this channel.

  Whilst there is an increasing body of local policy setting minimum targets for renewable provision in new developments (the Merton 10% example being frequently cited) this can only be regarded as guidance to developers and is difficult to enforce without incurring significant costs. North Northamptonshire is currently in the process of developing more prescriptive policy through a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), however, in the meantime this Authority is finding difficulties in applying its current policy on this issue which is less stringent.

  With B&Q's recent promotion of micro-turbines (and misleading literature stating that Planning Permission is not required for them, which is emphatically not the case at present), there is an urgent need to review planning legislation in respect to micro-renewables both to enable householders to more easily adopt such technologies (and help achieve Government renewables targets), and to reduce the demand on Development Control departments who are currently experiencing a steep rise in workload due to the new Growth Area proposals.

  I hope that you are able to take these comments into account when the Select Committee meets and would appreciate if you could make this Council's views known to the Select Committee. Given the difficulties of delivering renewable and energy efficiency measures locally it's our Councillors' strong conviction that a mandatory national code be adopted or that Building Regulations be widened to require certain targets and that permitted development rights be granted for the installation of renewable technologies on existing residential dwellings. This Council would be able to provide a certain amount of evidence for the Committee if required in relation to the difficulties encountered.

  Your assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

20 October 2006

Annex 1

LETTER TO PETER BONE MP, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR WELLINGBOROUGH & RUSHDEN

RENEWABLE AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEASURES TO BE RAISED IN THE HOUSE

  Further to our meeting at Wellingborough Council when you kindly attended our Corporate Management Team meeting to discuss areas of common interest and methods of communication I write to request your assistance in a matter raised by our Members at the last Environment Committee.

  Members are becoming increasingly frustrated by the apparent inability of Local Authorities to ensure that renewable and energy efficiency measures can be delivered on new housing developments through existing planning policy and building regulations (see enclosed Evening Telegraph letter). As you may know the Council produced Supplementary Planning Guidance in April 2003 ("Building Better Places") outlining the ways that developments can contribute to sustainable development which includes the use of renewable energy technologies within new housing schemes. However, this is guidance to encourage developers to undertake these requirements and can only be enforced through a refusal of the planning consent and a potential costly appeal process.

  Time has moved on since 2003 and several Councils have started to adopt policies which set minimum targets for renewable energy generation on new schemes—the Merton Borough example of 10% is often cited. Further work is also being undertaken to assess the ability for national regulatory systems (eg Building Regulations) to provide more compulsion for house builders to incorporate these technologies within their new-build developments. A new Planning Policy Statement (PPS) on climate change/renewable energy may also provide more teeth to deliver these improvements, however, both of these policy initiative are stalled and not of immediate use.

  In North Northamptonshire the Joint Planning Unit will be developing a Supplementary Planning Document to support policies in the Core Spatial Strategy which will provide a more robust policy framework for Local Authorities to insist on renewable energy targets within new schemes but this will also take a significant amount of time to adopt.

  In the meantime, I have been tasked to ask you to bring the matter up as an issue in the House and to request a Minister's response as to the progress in delivering more compulsion within the construction industry to deliver more renewable and energy efficiency measures within all new developments.

  Our Members would appreciate your efforts in lobbying Ministers and the Government to enable this and other Local Authorities to have the powers to proactively deliver micro-renewable energy schemes and to help reduce the contribution that residential properties undoubtedly have in contributing to climate change.

  I hope that you will be able to fulfil this request and look forward to your response so that I can feed this back to the Members.

Corporate Manager—Sustainable Development

14 September 2006





 
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