Agenda item

The Service Manager – Housing Management and Home Ownership to present a report to the Cabinet Committee with regard to adopting a new approach to the Council House Building Programme – Phase 5.

(1)        That the Council adopts a new approach that involves early engagement with local community representatives;

(2)        That a new process for future CHBP site assessments based on a collaborative and incremental approach be agreed; and

(3)        That all future developments going forward be designed in line with the ‘Passivhaus’ standard – ‘Fabric First’ approach as a minimum and to accommodate future retrospective installations of Low Carbon Heat Generation and Heat Recovery Systems as and when suitable systems are identified.

Deborah Fenton, Service Manager, Housing Management and Home Ownership, presented a report to the Cabinet Committee, she advised that the Council House Building Programme (CHBP) had mostly been developed on former garage sites to date. A number of potential sites have been refused planning permission or been withdrawn, partly due to added limitedneighbourhood improvement and adding to some degree to local existing parking stress problems.  

Many of the previous garage sites that have been developed were of poor quality, unlit and attracted anti-social behaviour. Although the loss of the garage sites had been perceived by local residents as adding to parking stress in the local area, many of the garages were no longer suitable for parking cars because they were too small and mostly used for storage.  

A consultation and community planning process had been proposed to engage with local community representatives to openly discuss where potential development opportunities may exist and to better understand and potentially address local issues that may be required to possibly achieve positive support for further Council Housing development in an area.

Some CHBP developments provide more additional parking than was required and have been left unallocated.  However, being mainly small enclosed developments, it was believed that they would be better managed through EFDC licences to local residents allowing improved security and improved community cohesion.  This was proposed in a separate report and a new draft policy – Allocation of Surplus Car Parking Spaces Delivered through CHBP.

As a positive response to the Council’s Climate Emergency resolution it was proposed to design all future developments adopting the ‘Passivhaus’ standard – ‘Fabric First’ as a minimum. This would further improve the thermal standard of the properties reducing the future heating requirements for residents. Given the external wall thickness significantly increases from c300mm to c500mm would establish the base approach and thereby simplify the design process and avoid the need for redesign and potentially resubmitting for planning consent and assist the subsequent contractor to deliver the Design and Build contracts. This was anticipated to add c.3-5% to the current specification build cost. 

The adoption of a heat generation and recovery system i.e. an Air Source Heat Pump and Heat Recovery System (ASHP-HRS) would add a further c.6-8% to the current specification build cost. The technology to achieve this was available but there are varying views of its reliability and ease of user operation.

It was therefore beneficial to design all future properties going forward to accommodate ‘Passivhaus’ standard – ‘Fabric First’ and to also plan within the design for future retrospective installation of an ASHP-HRS as and when a suitable system was identified. 

A new process was proposed for selecting and developing sites for Council Housebuilding based on a collaborative approach involving EFDC colleagues, Essex County Council and community representatives. The purpose was to assess and develop the potential sites using an incremental approach to ensure successful planning applications, developments that improve local neighbourhoods and limiting resource input into sites which are not feasible or supportable for development.

Councillor J Philip asked if the officers had any idea when a suitable heat system would be identified for the heat recovery approach.

J Cosgrave advised in terms of the Passivhaus and the heat recovery there were two separate issues to be addressed the first was improving the thermal efficiency of the building, therefore reducing the need for heat input and under the Passivhaus, Fabric First standard in order to increase and improve the thermal efficiency of the building the external wall thickness needed to increase by c300 millimetres to c500 millimetres. Therefore, over a block of flats, this could amount to approximately 4/56 millimetres to which there was a benefit in adopting the Fabric First standard in order to improve the thermal efficiency of the building and the heat demand going forward in the future. There was also a benefit in securing the planning consent on a size of building that was unlikely to change by therefore accommodating the potential future sizing of the thermal mass of the building. The second element which was the heat recovery, on Ladyfields we were proposing to do a full Passivhaus project which would involve air source heat pumps and heat recovery, in terms of the carbon capture the heat generation and the heat recovery was the element that responds the greatest to the carbon reduction, for example a gas boiler might omit c70 tonnes of carbon over a c45 year period, by using an air source heat pump and a heat recovery system this could reduce to c5 tonnes of carbon.

There was a problem in that the Council signed up to a climate emergency policy to try and reduce the carbon footprint by 2030, today there was the technology available for heat generation and heat recovery but the performance isn’t as effective as advertised and the air source heat pumps are harder to install and have a life expectancy less than that of a gas boiler system. Therefore the proposal was to test drive on Ladyfields so we can start to gain some practical experience in the delivery of this system. Also the heat generation and heat recovery needs to be looked at in the 6,500 Council house stock to make a meaningful reduction in carbon across the district. The technology was there but it was not a reliable source of technology that you could say was not going to be defect free over the next 20 or 30 years, and that was a key concern.

Councillor J Philip asked if the technology would be there in 1-2 years to be able to install or were the Council looking at 5+ years to where they would be in a position to where the market thinks that the heat recovery technology will be at a level that could be used successfully.

J Cosgrave replied that the market was quite dynamic at the present time and within the next 2 to 5 years you will see some leaders appear, this was not just a UK initiative this was a worldwide initiative and in the next 2 to 5 years you will start to see some stabilisation in the technology.

Councillor H Whitbread asked how cost effective this system was and how it compared to other options which we might have applied earlier.

J Cosgrave replied in terms of the Fabric First, it adds approximately 3 to 6% in terms of the build cost but long term the buildings will be more thermally efficient.

D Fenton stated that on the Ladyfields site, to make sure it was financially feasible, officers have done a cost feasibility study over 30 years. Usually when officers are looking at Council housing and what it would return to the Council we calculate over 30 years which was the standard business plan, so using the Passivhaus standard it would return a small profit which was really positive because there was an additional cost. Going forward with all schemes that go to the Council Housebuilding Cabinet Committee for approval a financial analysis would accompany the report so that Members would be able to see what the outcome was in terms of the internal rate of return for the Council over the 30 years of the business plan.

Councillor N Bedford advised in March 2019 it was confirmed by the Government that no new house builds from 2025 were allowed to have gas boilers installed, therefore we have to move forward and have to adopt the new technology. He stated that he had seen some of the technology in place where they were installing heat recovery systems and with this new technology they do not have to dig trenches across fields to lay the pipework they bore down into the ground to a certain depth and then the pipes are capped off. There was potential there for the Council to move forward and adopt the new technology which will be advantageous for the Council.

Councillor D Wixley asked if all the Council new build sites would have electric charging points for electric vehicles and were they going to have solar panels.

J Cosgrave replied that on sites where there was permitted parking PV’s would be installed and also where permitted solar panels on the roofs. As you are aware EFDC were developing a green and blue sustainable policy which we are trying to embrace and going forward in terms of the efficiency of these properties.

Councillor C C Pond asked Members if they could give an assurance that flammable Installation systems will not be installed in any of the Councils new builds.

J Cosgrave replied in terms of flammable and due to recent events for example Grenfell Tower and a Car Park in Liverpool, nest to the arena, it was strongly expected that there was going to be a rigorous change in the terms of building regulations. From the Councils point of view all materials used must be of a high standard of safety.

Councillor H Whitbread stated that she was happy to see the Council moving away from garage sites, as they had caused a lot of issues over the years and that EFDC were taking a fresh approach with their commitment to continue building council houses.

Decision:

(1)        That the Council adopts a new approach that involves early engagement with local community representatives;

(2)        That a new process for future CHBP site assessments based on a collaborative and incremental approach be agreed; and

(3)        That all future developments going forward be designed in line with the ‘Passivhaus’ standard – ‘Fabric First’ approach as a minimum and to accommodate future retrospective installations of Low Carbon Heat Generation and Heat Recovery Systems as and when suitable systems are identified.

Reasons for Decision:

To reduce time delay and cost to improve speed and effectiveness of bringing forward supportable development in CHBP. 

To recognise and support the Council’s Climate Emergency resolution by improving the thermal efficiency of the new properties and future proofing the design to accommodate evolving low carbon heat generation and recovery systems.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

Not to set up a new process and continue with the current approach. This would not address the current issues that have been identified with identifying and developing new sites, leading to delays and increased costs and abortive costs. 

Not to introduce the introducing the ‘Passivhaus’ standard – ‘Fabric First’ as a minimum on all developments and not to design the new properties to accommodate future retrospective installation of low carbon heat generation and heat recovery systems. This would not provide thermal efficiency improvements on the new properties and make future retrofitting of technology to improve carbon emissions more problematic and costly.