A TASKFORCE featuring some of the UK’s top property experts has been launched to help the West Midlands accelerate the construction of low carbon, energy efficient homes.
The Zero Carbon Homes Taskforce has been set up by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to support the region’s fight against climate change, making sure all new homes meet tough zero carbon standards from 2025 onwards.
The taskforce, which is being chaired by the UK Green Building Council, will provide local and expert insight into how the region plans for a net zero future as it works towards achieving its ambitious target of being carbon neutral by 2041.
The move towards zero carbon homes will play a critical role in the region’s wider plans for a successful economic recovery from Covid-19 – one that makes the West Midlands a greener and healthier place to live and work.
WM2041: A Programme for Implementing an Environmental Recovery sets out a range of initiatives from small-scale through to potentially region-wide and complex schemes, including retrofitting old and cold homes to make them more energy efficient and accelerating the transition of the region’s automotive industry to electric vehicles.
In nearby Redditch, a non-constituent member of WMCA, Accord housing Association has already started work on building the first plastic free houses.
Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, will chair the taskforce which includes representatives across the construction, finance, academia, innovation and energy sectors.
She said: “We have secured a multi-disciplinary and highly experienced group of representatives from business, local government and academia, all of whom I am confident will play a critical role in ensuring that the WMCA adopts an ambitious and impactful approach to delivering zero carbon homes closely aligned with UKGBC’s own framework definition for net zero carbon buildings.”
The WMCA aims to make all new homes ‘zero carbon ready’ from 2025. This means that new built homes from 2025 onwards will be able to become ‘fully zero carbon’ as the electricity grid decarbonises, without the need for retrofitting and that they will produce 75-80% lower CO2 emissions compared to current levels.
