First Year of Zero Carbon Policy Experience

It has been one year since the implementation of the ‘Zero Carbon Homes’ standard by the Greater London Authority (GLA) as of 1^st October 2017.

As ‘Zero Carbon Homes’ has been defined as part of Policy 5.2 of the London Plan, it expects all major residential developments to achieve a 35% reduction over Part L 2013 on site, with the remaining CO₂ emissions to be offset by a cash-in-lieu contribution to the relevant London Borough.

Our experience so far has indicated that most of the councils have adopted GLA’s price of CO₂ at £60/tonne over a period of 30 years. However a number of local authorities have established their own price via local yearly carbon offsetting assessments and consultations. There are cases such as Lewisham Council that have a significantly greater offset price (£104/tonne) or Islington that measures for the total CO₂ emission rather than just regulated ones.

While the payment request is the same for all London Boroughs, through S106 agreements, the timing for collection varies. Some councils require payments upfront at pre-implementation while others accept contributions in a number of instalments commencing at pre-occupation stage.

All councils have dedicated Carbon Offset Funds which in certain cases feed into projects that have been established (i.e. aiming to provide energy upgrades to public or council buildings such as insulating external walls of council buildings, retrofitting public buildings etc.) with some boroughs being open to suggestions for alternative projects from developers.