The homes in Peterborough are being delivered as part of the government’s Carbon Challenge programme, managed by the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA).
Morris Homes, working with architect Browne Smith Baker and landscaper Barnes Walker, will build 295 homes to level six of the government’s code for sustainable homes on a 17-acre former factory site close to Peterborough United’s London Road football ground in Fletton.
Working with the council and Morris Homes, the HCA hopes to demonstrate how massive reductions in carbon emissions can be achieved by adopting particular design and construction technologies.
The sustainable development will provide a mixture of 63 two-bedroom, 90 three-bedroom and 68 four-bedroom houses plus 74 two-bedroom apartments in a seven-storey block. The apartment block, complete with a grass roof and green walling, will face on to London Road and include a 278-sq metre (3,000 sq ft) food store and parking space for cars and cycles.
HCA executive director Terry Fuller said: “The ‘zero carbon’ status aims to create new homes and places that are appealing, attractive and point the way to how we could all live in the future. The industry has to respond to climate change and planning approval on this development enables fast-track delivery of more zero carbon homes in England.”
Martin Edmunds from Morris Homes said: “We are in the enviable position of being able to create something truly visionary. We believe our proposals fulfil the carbon challenge criteria in an exciting way.”
In the UK, it is reckoned that more than a quarter of all carbon emissions come from existing residential properties. This raises the challenge of delivering millions of new homes and integrated communities in a more sustainable way, without adding to the UK’s carbon emissions, the HCA says.
In response to this challenge, the government’s code for sustainable homes requires the building industry to make ever-greater reductions in carbon emissions over coming years with all new homes being built to ‘zero carbon’ standards after 2016.
The HCA’s Carbon Challenge programme challenges designers and house-builders to show how level six of the code can be delivered. The first Carbon Challenge demonstration development is being constructed at the site of a former hospital at Hanham Hall, South Gloucestershire.
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