Select Committee on Environmental Audit Written Evidence


Memorandum submitted by Cambridgeshire Horizons

MEMORANDA

    —  The proposed Eco-town development at Hanley Grange will have a negative impact on planned developments in Cambridgeshire and in particular on the delivery of the prototype Eco-town of Northstowe.

    —  There are a number of issues around accessibility and the remote location of Hanley Grange.

    —  As our currently proposed Eco-towns will have a limited effect on reducing the environmental impacts of housing and by-pass the plan-led system which has been strongly promoted by the government.

    —  Enforcement of the code for sustainable homes and zero-carbon targets may prove challenging and resource hungry.

    —  "Zero carbon" should be measured from whole community impacts, and not just housing.

1.  INTRODUCTION/SUMMARY

  1.1  Cambridgeshire Horizons is the local delivery vehicle charged with delivering sustainable housing growth and additional infrastructure for the Cambridge sub-Region. This response sets out our views on the emerging Eco-towns agenda, and has been agreed with our local authority partners in Cambridgeshire (Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridge City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council, Fenland District Council and Huntingdonshire District Council).

  1.2  Cambridgeshire Horizons and its local authority partners support the principle of developing low and zero-carbon growth, and we are actively seeking to create exemplary sustainable new homes and communities in the Cambridgeshire area, one of the fastest-growing parts of the country, which will meet housing needs, mitigate impacts on the environment and adapt to the challenges posed by climate change.

  1.3  There is a need to ensure our understanding of the term "zero-carbon" includes all the major carbon impacts of growth (such as transport and provision of key services) and does not focus solely on impacts arising from the design of the new homes themselves. New developments cannot be treated in isolation, as their carbon footprint will depend on their relationship to existing communities and infrastructure already in place. Furthermore, we should be seeking to ensure lessons learnt from delivering low or zero-carbon growth can then be applied to deal with the much bigger problem of reducing emissions from the existing housing stock. In relation to these points, Cambridgeshire Horizons and the local authorities of Cambridgeshire have very serious concerns regarding the proposed eco-town at Hanley Grange in South Cambridgeshire.

  1.4  Cambridgeshire Horizons, South Cambridgeshire District Council, and Cambridgeshire County Council are already fully engaged in bringing forward an ambitious growth agenda, including the prototype Eco-town of Northstowe, planned for around 9,500 houses on a former airfield site to the north of Cambridge. Northstowe will be the largest new town to be developed in the UK since Milton Keynes, and needs to provide an example of what can be achieved in terms of sustainable growth for the new settlements will follow. It is a massive and challenging project, which will require significant effort and resources from all concerned if it is to be the kind of development all want to see delivered. Northstowe will be located on a guided busway is currently under construction and represents a significant investment (£92.5 million) of public resources. High-level sustainability principles will be built into all our planned growth sites, and the proposals for Hanley Grange jeopardise our ability to deliver on these ambitions, as they will (and indeed already have) resulted in the diversion of already scarce resources within the public and private sector, which in turn will slow down the delivery of homes at Northstowe and the other already-planned development sites around Cambridge, and put at risk the quality of those developments. Local planning and technical resources are already severely stretched by the complexity and ambition of the current growth programme. In particular, placing an additional new settlement within South Cambridgeshire, which is the planning authority for Northstowe and for several other major sites on the Cambridge fringes, would stretch beyond breaking point their resources, and diminish their ability to deliver the significant growth already planned.

  1.5  The Hanley Grange site is isolated from the existing public transport network and is bounded by a number of major roads, all of which are already showing signs of strain from increased usage. It is likely this isolation from existing major settlements would result in a car-dominated settlement, putting further pressure on congested roads and worsening our carbon emissions problem. The site is relatively close to the overstretched Liverpool Street to Cambridge rail line, but not so close to avoid rail corridor being most likely to be accessed by car by the new residents. It is also fairly close to Stansted Airport, and it seems predictable this would make the new town primarily desirable to long-distance commuters, further raising questions about its ability to deliver sustainable growth and the promoters' promises of high levels of local employment. The proposed site overlies an aquifer which supplies drinking water to the Cambridge area and rather than being previously developed land, it is almost entirely high quality grade 2 agricultural land.

  1.6  The Environmental Audit Committee has stated its concerns recently built settlements risk becoming "climate slums" unless changes to the planning system are made. The process used for Hanley Grange by-passes the current regional and local plan-led process, and has not allowed for democratic input and detailed public comment, or technical analyses, which could enable a proper assessment of whether an eco-town here could contribute to the overall growth strategy for the area. We would hope the Committee could support our arguments against this unwelcome development.

2.  REDUCING CARBON EMISSIONS FROM NEW HOMES

2.1  Is the target for all new homes to be zero-carbon by 2016 on track to be achieved? Does the Government need to do any more to deliver this target?

    —  The planned new settlement of Northstowe is intended to be an exemplar of zero carbon development and sustainable design techniques There will be a number of cost impacts, and it will be crucial the government provides funding support to allow ambitious carbon targets to be deliverable within a commercially viable package. Promoting Northstowe to full Eco-Town status and making additional growth area moneys available for zero-carbon development to be delivered earlier than 2016 would help test building techniques and technologies, which could then benefit future development elsewhere in the country.

2.2  How should "zero-carbon" be defined? What role should carbon offsets play in meeting this target?

    —  Zero-carbon should be measured from "whole community" impacts, taking into account transport, services and connectivity, not just housing.

2.3  What impact will the progressive tightening of energy efficiency building regulations have up to 2016? Are the targets for 2010 and 2013 achievable?

    —  The ambitions in the regulations are welcome, but there remain difficult issues around the extent to which these targets can be met within the bounds of commercial viability.

2.4  How should compliance with the targets be measured and enforced?

    —  It seems likely local authorities will be given responsibility to measure and enforce zero carbon targets, but additional funding would need to be provided to enable enforcement to be effective.

2.5  What is the likely scale of environmental impacts (especially carbon emissions) of the construction of three million new homes (ie, irrespective of where they are sited)? How should these impacts be reported? What should be the role of central Government in minimising them?

    —  Impacts need to be reported on a national basis, and again it will be crucial to capture the wider picture around carbon emissions from new developments, not just looking at housing in isolation. The principle of sustainable development must include looking at these "whole community" carbon costs, which puts further emphasis on locating major new developments in the most sustainable places, generally close to public transport nodes and existing urban areas, rather than in isolated areas.

3.  ECO-TOWNS

3.1  As currently envisaged, how big a contribution will they make to reducing the environmental impacts of housing in England-both in their own right, and in the development of design and techniques could be rolled out in other developments?

    —  Freestanding small new towns, such as Hanley Grange, proposed in the Government's Eco-Towns initiative may be too small to be relatively self contained for employment, services and facilities, and of insufficient size to support internal public transport services. A much more sustainable approach is to expand existing towns and cities, building on the relative sustainability, and developing those towns which are too small to be truly sustainable to a size which will enable them to be more self contained.

    —  Potentially, eco-towns could make a major contribution to reducing the environmental impacts of development, but only where town expansion is not feasible and where they will complement existing settlement patterns and transport networks. They need to be contributing more than just additional numbers of dwellings by providing a balance of homes, jobs and services. These objectives can normally be best achieved by taking any new town options forward through the plan-led system, with the backing of local authorities wherever possible. Northstowe, already a prototype eco-town, will be critical in showing what is possible, and must not be derailed by the proposals for a far less sustainable development at Hanley Grange which is proposed on similar timeframes. Future eco-towns will be able to learn from the techniques and results of Northstowe, which is why we must ensure we do not jeopardise our ability to deliver excellence there, and indeed our other major development sites. Eco-towns should link in with the local authorities' place-shaping agenda, rather than being parachuted in from above.

4.  CODES FOR SUSTAINABLE HOMES

4.1  What impact is the Code for Sustainable Homes likely to have on the construction and purchase of new homes? How well is the mandatory rating likely to be enforced? Should the Code be changed in any way?

    —  In general the CSH should have a positive impact, however enforcement may prove challenging and bring additional cost impacts on local authorities. It would be helpful if resources to be channelled into eco-towns could be reconsidered for helping to promote faster take-up of higher environmental standards in new communities already in the planning pipeline.

5.  GREENFIELD AND GREEN BELT DEVELOPMENTS

5.1  To what extent do, and should, planning controls protect greenfield and green belt land from development of new housing? How adequately are environmental considerations (for instance, biodiversity and rural landscapes) being taken into account in deciding the location of new developments?

    —  Cambridgeshire has already been engaged in reviewing greenbelt provision and has removed some land off green belt protection to enable us to meet housing targets. A more sophisticated approach than blanket bans on greenbelt development may be useful for bringing forward future sustainable developments, but a focus on retaining sufficient high quality green infrastructure alongside new housing development is central to maintaining quality of life for new and existing residents, as well as protecting and enhancing biodiversity and mitigating wider climate change impacts. The Green Belt should remain a key planning tool to protect those qualities for which are designated, and should not be seen as a means to stop development.

6.  INFRASTRUCTURE

6.1  What progress has the Government made, in the two years since EAC's last report on this issue, in ensuring new developments are being built with adequate infrastructure in order to make them successful and sustainable?

    —  The jury is still out. Transport and water are particular issues in the East of England, especially if we are committing to zero carbon for the huge scale of growth we are trying to deliver in Cambridgeshire and the wider region. The funding provided to assist in the delivery of the guided busway, from Cambridge to Northstowe and beyond, has been of great assistance in underpinning the environmental credentials of Northstowe. We believe eco-investment should be consolidated here and in other growing communities rather than dissipated in speculative proposals such as Hanley Grange.

25 April 2008





 
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