RTPI Planning Awards 2009

27-Jan-10

Sustainable Design and Construction SPD - London Borough of Southwark

Climate Change Award Commendation

Sponsored by Berwin Leighton Paisener

Summary

The London Borough of Southwark's sustainable design and construction supplementary planning document (SPD) acts as a key tool in supporting the Council's aim of reducing CO2 emissions.

Background

The London Borough of Southwark has a corporate commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 and to pursue a decentralised energy strategy. Southwark Council aims to ensure that new developments have a positive impact on the environment by reducing emissions from construction, adapting to unavoidable climate change, conserving water, and being planned to reduce flood risk. The aim is also to address energy use in buildings, because this is responsible for around 85% of the CO2 emissions across Southwark. With over 16,300 new homes to be provided by 2017, over 36,000 new jobs and major retail expansion at Elephant and Castle and Canada Water, reaching this target is a real challenge.

Project Description

The SPD was widely consulted on for over a year before being adopted by the Council’s Executive and cross-departmental working was vital to its production. Technical knowledge and expertise was needed to understand the issues and find solutions, for example devising templates so that developers provide technical information in a consistent format, helping development management staff to analyse it. The SPD covers the whole range of issues involved in sustainable design and construction, from liveability of housing to explaining the energy hierarchy. Minimum standards are required for major developments of more than 10 residential units or 1000sqm of floorspace and developments are also required to connect area wide combined heat and power/combined cooling heat and power (CHP/CCHP) systems where these exist or are being developed.

Planning Achievement

• The SPD has been used successfully to ensure that the larger developments approved at the Elephant and Castle site have been designed to connect to the multi-utility services company (MUSCo) when it is operational via S106 agreements. The Council is also using the SPD approach to guide the development of energy strategies in other areas such as Aylesbury and Canada Water. The Aylesbury area action plan contains a commitment to providing CHP, a requirement for developments to connect, and a requirement for all homes reach Code for Sustainable Homes level 4 as a minimum;
• Over half the borough is located in a flood zone. The SPD provides a mechanism to implement the recommendations of a recent strategic flood risk assessment, setting out guidance on the standards sought with regards to water attenuation and mitigation measures such as SUDs and flood resilient design techniques;
• To help officers implement the SPD, the Council ran a number of joint training sessions to develop a stronger level of understanding of the requirements of the document and the ways in which it can assist their work;
• The SPD ensures that development management staff are aware of the critical elements that need to be scrutinised across the whole range of sustainable design and that they feel able to apply policy with confidence.