Memorandum submitted by Sheffield City
Region
1. SHEFFIELD
CITY REGION
1.1 Geographically, the Sheffield City Region
(SCR) covers the four Metropolitan Borough Council areas of Barnsley,
Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield, and the District Council areas
of Bassetlaw, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, and North
East Derbyshire that are within Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire
County Councils; and part of the Peak District National Park Authority.
1.2 With a population of 1.75 million
and a workforce of 770,000, the SCR has seen significant economic
growth and regeneration in recent years. The SCR Development Programme—published
in September 2006—aims to increase GVA and generate an additional
75,000 full time equivalent jobs in the City Region.
1.3 One of the components of the SCR Development
programme is the Dearne Valley, seen as a distinctive area
in the city region with its combination of challenges, having
been one of the most heavily polluted areas in North West Europe,
and of opportunities for the Dearne Valley to maximise its potential
as a green eco-valley.
1.4 From 1995 to 2005, there was significant
employment growth (10,000 jobs) in the Dearne Valley, through
the Enterprise Zone. There have been wider economic, environmental
and social gains as a result of the regeneration activity in the
Dearne over the past twenty years. There is now a strong ambition
to build on the achievements in the Dearne Valley, and develop
its role in a way that complements the focus on economic growth
in the main urban centres. It has been agreed by the Sheffield
City Region local authority Leaders to develop a new vision for
the Dearne Valley, setting out its distinctive contribution to
the success of the wider city region.
2. THE DEARNE
VALLEY ECO-VISION
2.1 Following the creation of a Dearne Valley
Special Board over a year ago, the three local authorities of
Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham have collaborated to work up
an eco-vision for the Dearne. This sees the transformation of
the Dearne Valley by driving forward the next stage of regeneration
through a package of measures and a framework of policies to accelerate
the move to a high quality, low carbon environment. This will
attract businesses specialising in leading technologies and techniques
to tackle climate change and bring new jobs.
2.2 For the communities of the Dearne, the
vision will mean the delivery of more energy efficient homes,
cutting fuel bills for residents. Better public transport links
will improve access and reduce reliance on the car. More training
opportunities will be available in skills to address climate change,
improving people's job prospects and equipping them for the new
jobs created in the Dearne as more businesses, specialising in
environmental technologies, are attracted to the area. An enhanced
natural environment will create a place where people want to live
and work and bring up their families, as well as attracting visitors
from across the City Region.
2.3 At the heart of the vision will be a
new economic model. The model will be forward looking, shaped
by the key opportunities and threats that face the local and city-regional
economy over the coming decades. It will be about investing not
just to meet today's needs, but with the next generation in mind,
investment not just in the low carbon infrastructure to bring
together the Dearne's towns, but in awareness, skills and the
know-how to do things differently.
2.4 The eco-vision will see the move to
a high quality, low carbon environment bringing new jobs and leading
technologies and techniques to tackle climate change. It will
develop the broad range of skills and know-how required to deliver
the eco-vision, protecting and expanding employment by gearing
up people and businesses for the future. Above all it will be
about creating added value from growing and managing the assets
of the Dearne Valley—its people, the places that define
its character, and the landscape and natural resources. This value
will be used to create a spectrum of economic activity serving
not just the Dearne, but the city region as a whole.
3. LOW CARBON
TECHNOLOGIES IN
THE DEARNE
VALLEY
3.1 Partners in the Dearne Valley envisage
that new and existing communities will be supported by zero carbon
energy infrastructure, using local resources and creating a strong
differentiation for new housing by applying A+ rating. Working
with Transform South Yorkshire (originally set up as a housing
market renewal pathfinder scheme) we plan to meet the challenge
of delivering zero carbon homes ahead of the Government's 2016 target
by working with the house building industry to plan zero carbon
infrastructure for new development sites, and by establishing
a new investment vehicle—an energy service company (ESCo)—to
ensure that the costs and benefits are shared.
3.2 Higher standards of insulation and air
tightness would be required as well as the installation of low
carbon energy technologies—either on individual homes, or
for whole streets or communities. The programme would require
a significant number of skilled trades and a range of modern building
products and technologies. Working with installers and suppliers
a "kit of parts" would be developed, adapted to the
different house types of the Dearne Valley in order to meet the
standard. The economies of scale from working across the Dearne
Valley would be used to capture the economic benefits by seeking
to attract investment from manufacturers, and to create apprenticeships
and training so that people from the Dearne Valley develop the
skills and know how to provide services to city region. Low carbon
product manufacturing is already well developed in pioneering
countries such as Germany and Japan. This early advantage makes
it difficult to compete with them, but one possibility could be
to "franchise" manufacturing for Sheffield City Region.
"Off the shelf' production lines for products such as insulation
and photovoltaic modules could be licensed if there was sustained
and committed demand.
3.3 We are also exploring more effective
energy planning such as the use of waste heat from a local mine
gas plant; the incorporation of biomass heating using local wood
chip; the development of a wind farm and the generation of biogas
heating power from organic waste collected from households and
fermented to produce methane. Innovative new energy sources are
to be explored including the use of minewater for heating and
cooling; the insitu use of remaining coal seams as a source of
coalbed methane and following on from a hydrogen project elsewhere
in Rotherham, a second hydrogen "mini-grid" is being
examined to supply the Dearne's employment hub
4. CONCLUSION
4.1 We are on the cusp of turning many aspects
of the eco-vision into reality and the next few months will see
proposals for exemplar schemes and initiatives being developed
in order to realise the Dearne's ambitions. We will be interested
in the Energy and Climate Change Committee's work and the outcomes
of this inquiry into low carbon technologies in a green economy.
We look forward to contributing in the future to this debate as
our ideas turn into practical schemes in the Dearne Valley.
May 2009
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