The report responded to the propositions in the Motion that
1. all new council houses will be built carbon-neutral, for example by futureproofing with low carbon heating and the highest standards of energy efficiency.
2. all developers of new affordable housing should be encouraged to meet these same high standards.
3. all other developers of new housing should be encouraged to meet these same high standards.
4. all existing council stock, and properties purchased for such use, should be retrofitted to the highest standards as economically as possible.
It investigated the propositions so that Cabinet could debate them and further report back for subsequent debate to the Council, in accordance with CPR 11.5.
Therefore, the report set out the considerable investment, and achievements, to date, to reduce the carbon impact of the Council’s housing stock. It set out how the Council’s recently adopted Housing Development Strategy aims to promote sustainability, and to meet the Council’s environmental ambitions. It explained what had been done to encourage private developers to do likewise. Finally, it set out the Council’s realistic intentions, going forward, to further its environmental aims, to meet the challenges of its climate change agenda, and crucially, to find a pathway to carbon neutrality for its housing stock.
To meet this latter ambition, the report recommended, additionally, that a consultant be appointed to look at developing a future programme of work for the retrofitting of the existing housing stock.