Mansfield District Council have a clear political aspiration to take action to address the climate emergency through our house building programme. Hence the driver to deliver, and learn from a pilot passivhaus scheme.
The passivhaus-database.org website shows that there are 170 properties in the UK certified as attaining the Passivhaus standard. Mansfield District Council are on course to add four new homes to the database once the properties are certified as Passivhaus compliant.
Mansfield District Council have a clear political aspiration to take action to address the climate emergency through our house building programme. Hence the driver to deliver, and learn from a pilot passivhaus scheme.
The challenge
The Saundby Avenue development involved the demolition of a surplus, unused tenants meeting room and the redevelopment of the site to provide two pairs of semi-detached homes. Located on a tight infill site in a close-knit residential community.
The solution
Work started in July 2021 and completed in May 2022. The houses were built using a fabric first approach and incorporated 300mm fully filled cavity wall insulation, triple glazed windows, air source heating, solar panels, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, electric car charging points, high levels of air tightness achieving at least 0.6 air changes per hour.
The project was directly awarded via the EEM framework. A non-profit organisation offering efficiency savings for the public sector. EEM reinvest their surplus into communities through our Community Donation scheme which distributes thousands of pounds to our members, including Mansfield District Council.
The procurement route offered early engagement and collaboration between Mansfield District Council and the contractor. Robert Woodhead Limited’s Head of Pre-construction Services, Stuart Downs supported the pre-commencement and mobilisation and value engineering phase of this project. This level of collaboration would not have been much more challenging if the project was awarded through a competitive tendering process.
The impact
In line with the Council’s new procurement strategy KPIs were set in the contract relating to social, economic and environmental value.
For every £1 spent with the contractor, £2.84 has been returned to the local economy.
An example of a KPI was ensuring that 25 per cent of spend was within 20 miles of site location. Ninety per cent was achieved.
Secondly, 60 per cent of the supply chain value was to be with SMEs. 100 per cent was achieved.
Carbon offsetting was also monitored in line with the industry standard of 43.51 Kg of CO2 /£1k project spend. 31.17 Kg of CO2 /£1,000 project spend was achieved.
Three education providers have been engaged and three work experience opportunities and two work experience contracts were created, more than 700 students have been engaged.
These houses are important for people’s lives not just for the benefit of our ecological footprint.
How is the approach being sustained?
As an in-house team of designers we explored the potential of carrying out a pilot passivhaus development having regard to the house building programme. Saundby Avenue was a natural choice to be a pilot being only four houses.
Lessons learned
We will now enter a period of review, monitoring performance in use, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University to monitor performance in use. This will enable us to bring lessons learned forward into future developments. We will be able to identify whether tenants use the properties correctly and identify the benefits they derive. Social, economic and environmental value will continue to be a driving factor in future procurement.