Monitoring the impact of London Plan Energy Policies

January 2012: The regional spatial strategy for London – the London Plan 2011 – contains a number of key sustainable energy and carbon requirements which developers must comply with when submitting planning applications for new developments in London.  Chapter 5 of the London Plan specifically addresses London’s Response to Climate Change and sets out the following policy requirements:

  • Policy 5.2Minimising  carbon emissions – which sets out a range of CO2 emission targets  for new developments which must be achieved through a hierarchy of ‘Be lean: use less energy; Be clean: supply energy efficiently and Be green: use renewable energy
  • Policy 5.5 – Use Decentralised Energy Systems which amongst other issues requires boroughs to develop energy master plans for specific decentralised energy opportunities
  • Policy 5.7Renewable Energy – where major development proposals should provide a reduction in expected emissions through the use of on-site renewable energy generation, where feasible.

The GLA yesterday published the latest in a series of reports providing analysis of CO2 emissions saved in relation to new developments as a result of the implementation of the London Plan’s policies.

The analysis demonstrated that substantial projected CO2 savings were secured  through implementation of London Plan energy policies in 2010 (ie the the London policies will result in buildings – when completed – which will  be less carbon intensive than requirements otherwise set out in national building regulations). Specifically:

  • average CO2 savings of 33 per cent per development over and above a baseline of a 2006 Building Regulations Part L compliant development including unregulated energy
  • a reduction of approximately 50 per cent in regulated CO2 emissions beyond the minimum requirements of 2006 Building Regulations (excluding unregulated energy)
  • The largest CO2 reductions were due to energy efficiency (EE) and combined heat and power (CHP), with a smaller saving due to renewable energy

Read the full report here. Previous London Plan energy monitoring analysis can be seen here and here.

* ‘Unregulated energy’ relates to those areas not covered by Part L of the building regulations (which is concerned with energy and emissions). These include energy used by appliances, lifts, cooking etc.

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