Trigon x DP9: How Can Planning Policy Contribute to Driving Sustainable Development?
by Andy Cox | Wednesday 6th December 2023
The UK’s planning policy is critical in delivering on the country’s Paris Agreement commitments. The government declared a climate emergency in 2019, which has led to a renewed focus on reducing carbon emissions and transitioning to a low-carbon economy. DP9 Limited , a leading planning consultancy firm, are at the forefront of planning policy in the UK, and their expertise has been invaluable in delivering sustainable developments that meet the country’s climate change commitments.
Continued by Nona Jones I Wednesday 6th December 2023
In the wake of the global climate change emergency, the UK Government has set ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions and curb global temperature rise through the Climate Change Act and as a signatory of the Paris Agreement. In 2019, the UK Government also made a historic milestone, legislating a binding target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. This has filtered down at more local level, with 85% of local councils in England, including the Mayor of London, declaring a ‘Climate Emergency’, committing to net zero targets as early as 2030. With 25% of the UK’s carbon emissions directly attributable to the built environment - the second highest source of climate emissions after surface transport - future development and the way it is managed through the planning system will have an influential role to play in achieving net zero targets.
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out the Government’s planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied. This includes the expectation that the purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of ‘sustainable development’ made up of social, economic and environmental considerations. Albeit the current version of the NPPF makes no reference to the net zero target or clear objectives of how it is going to be achieved.
The NPPF does look to achieve “radical reductions” in greenhouse gas emissions and supporting a transition to a low-carbon future as a key objective of the environmental strand of sustainability. Traditionally, local development plans and associated planning policies have concentrated on reducing emissions associated with the day-to-day operation of a development to achieve this. More recently, the focus has shifted to the ‘upfront’ emissions associated with the construction of the developments themselves – known as ‘embodied carbon’. These are emissions which have not been required to be assessed or controlled by planning policy until recently, but will account for around 50% of built environment emissions by 2035 – emphasising the need for a more holistic approach to assessing the true carbon footprint of development and importance if we are to achieve net zero targets.
In 2021, the London Plan introduced a pioneering policy requiring planning applications for major developments in London to submit a "Whole Life-Cycle Carbon Assessment" to provide an assessment of a development’s complete carbon footprint over its lifespan. This has become an integral aspect of planning and decision-making which has to be considered from the outset of any development project. As part of the assessment, major planning applications are now required to undertake optioneering exercises to consider the carbon impacts of the development in comparison to other potential approaches to redevelopment of a site, each having varying levels of intervention. These assessments can only consider the comparative carbon impacts of each option, and so it is left for the local planning authority and applicants alike to consider these in the context of what other social, economic and other planning benefits more generally a development can deliver before concluding what the optimum approach to a site’s development may be.? Such approach was taken in the high-profile project for M&S at Oxford Street in London which considered 16 different options for redevelopment of the existing buildings as part of the planning application.
A number of? local authorities are also beginning to introduce their own guidance and policy position on how they expect re-development to be considered in the context of environmental impact, such as the City of London’s ‘Whole Life-Cycle Carbon Optioneering Planning Advice Note’ adopted earlier this year. Westminster City Council are also in the process of preparing their own “Retrofit-First” policy which will be introduced as part of their partial review of the City Plan. We expect more local planning authorities across the country will very quickly follow suit.
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There is a clear appetite, and responsibility for local planning authorities to become proactive when it comes to achieving net zero targets. As a result, the planning system and the way it assesses the environmental impact of development has experienced significant changes over the last few years to make developments increasingly accountable for their upfront as well as operational emissions.? While objectives of achieving net zero are gradually becoming clearer and more defined through local policies, Top of Form in the absence of clear-cut guidance from central Government, there is a risk of misalignment among local initiatives and different weight applied in decision making. A challenge remains with balancing reductions in carbon emissions whilst achieving ambitious targets for housing delivery as well as the necessary infrastructure and commercial growth needed to drive the economy.
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