Builders get green deadline

12:10pm Thursday 27th July 2006

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Developers have been told to start thinking green if they want to build homes in Oxford.o Oxford City Council has agreed a checklist for firms to calculate the environmental impact of buildings as part of their planning application.

The Natural Resources Impact Analysis (NRIA) document, agreed in principle on Monday, sets out requirements which must be met under the recently-adopted Local Plan.

Housebuilders have been able to get away with too much for too long. Their eyes are on profits, rather than the future of the planet'

Sushila Dhall

Planning officers have calculated that householders could save more than £100 a year if every new detached house met standards on energy efficiency alone.

Now the authority wants new homes to start using more renewable energies.

The city council's NRIA check-list will tell developers to use: locally-sourced materials (with high priority on recycled materials), more renewable energy, particularly solar water heating and small-scale wind energy,more natural ventilation, more tall glazing to increase daylight penetration into homes.

Green city councillor Sushila Dhall said: "We were hoping to make it tighter and put more pressure on developers, but I was happy to go along with it, because it's a forward-looking document.

"But if we're going to beat climate change, we're going to have to go further.

"Housebuilders have been able to get away with too much for too long. Their eyes are on profits, rather than the future of the planet."

The NRIA document will have to be completed for any application to build 10 or more homes.

The council has already advertised for climate change and sustainability officers on total salaries of £210,000 over the next three years, as a commitment to tackling global warming.

Some city homeowners have already made their homes more eco-friendly by using solar panels to generate heat.

However, the council's Green group leader Craig Simmons and his partner Elise Benjamin earlier this year lost an appeal to build an eco-friendly conservatory at their Magdalen Road home.

A Government planning inspector agreed with the city council's original decision to refuse permission for a "sun space" conservatory.

The couple wanted to build the one and-a-half storey glass extension on the front of their home to trap hot air and use it to warm their house. The size and height of the conservatory was ruled to be out of keeping with the street.