Buildings routemap

Direct emissions from buildings accounted for 17 per cent of UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. This figure increases to 23 per cent if indirect emissions from electricity use is taken into account. The sector needs to rapidly decarbonise both the construction and operation of buildings. The sector needs to rapidly decarbonise both the construction and operation of buildings. Retrofitting is required to reduce the energy needed to heat and power homes, which would also deliver co-benefits for health and wellbeing and lower energy bills. Moving away from fossil-fuel boilers and installing energy efficiency measures will play a key part in decarbonising buildings. The embodied carbon in building and retrofitting buildings also needs to be considered.

Roles for councils include retrofitting council housing and estates and working with private landlords, social housing providers and homeowners to promote retrofitting and decarbonisation. Building zero carbon into both the construction and use of buildings can be explored through planning policy and working with developers. Opportunities for skills development through collaboration with colleges and universities could provide co-benefits through the creation of green jobs and investment in local economies.

The buildings routemap suggests interventions that could embed sustainability in council services with a focus on buildings, complementing existing council projects and actions. It enables reflection on your work in this area and how things could be improved.

This is the beginning of an ongoing piece of work for the LGA. These interventions are a first draft and we will be adding and amending them based on initial feedback. We welcome your thoughts on how we can improve and grow what we have started. Please fill in the feedback form (opens in new tab) to let us know your thoughts.

The routemaps provide a menu of interventions council staff can reflect on and consider applying to their role, team or service area. Some may require collaboration and partnership with colleagues, other service areas, businesses or communities. Others may be within the remit of individuals to explore.

The routemaps are not broken down by service area or council type, as the themes are cross-cutting and affect all councils and service areas. Instead, the routemaps present categories and sub-categories of interventions, based on their potential to drive change and achieve the project goal.

Some of the interventions councils could consider include:

Retrofit

• Using retrofitting alongside projects to change building use, for example, to create flexible spaces.
• Introducing schemes that can reduce the carbon emissions of buildings, for example, Warmer Sussex Homes or EcoFurb.
• Retrofitting LED lighting to reduce energy consumption.
• Applying technology to retrofit buildings and increase energy efficiency.
• Exploring collaborative opportunities to support small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to retrofit their buildings.
• Installing building management systems to understand energy use in buildings and enable informed energy reduction actions, for example, to understand how much energy is used in the IT server rooms of larger organisations.
• Working with social and private landlords where building users can’t make changes to buildings themselves.
• Installing passive building-cooling systems to future-proof properties from the impacts of increasing temperatures.
• Carrying out retrofit work to UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard.
• Delivering deep retrofit measures to homes to kick-start the local supply chain, develop the business case and lower emissions, for example, London Councils and Cornwall.
• Building ‘zero carbon in use’ homes that can be warmed and supplied with electricity and hot water without generating carbon emissions, for example, City of York.
• Transforming homes affected by fuel poverty to make them more energy efficient, for example, B4Box in Stockport.

Renewables

• Installing district heating networks, for example, Leeds PIPES project.
• Exploring opportunities for district heat networks using mine water heating, for example, Wakefield.
• Installing heat pumps in the council’s largest buildings.

Water

• Installing efficient water systems, for example, grey water systems, at the building design stage.
• Retrofitting properties with water-saving and efficiency measures.
• Offering water-saving products, for example, water butts, to domestic properties.

Building use

• Exploring whether buildings are needed to deliver council services.
• Adopting shared building use and co-locating complementary services within one building (for example, health and wellbeing hubs) to maximise the use of scarce building resources.
• Creating efficiencies through facilities management.
• Making space flexible in buildings.

Building design

• Designing buildings to minimise overheating and reduce the need for air conditioning.

Place-based solutions

• Designing towns and cities where amenities are accessible on foot within 15 minutes, for example, Incitu in Leeds.
• Introducing area-based ‘low carbon communities’ with trusted advisors and installers and autonomy over how funding is used.
• Getting involved with energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation area-based schemes that fit into and complement national schemes, and which provide short term actions as part of a long-term strategy.  

Policy and regulation interventions relate to local council policies and strategies.

Decision making

• Processing all decisions through a doughnut economics model, for example, Cornwall.
• Using a decision-support tool (for example, the Tyndall Centre tool) to help people include sustainability and carbon in decision making.
• Embedding co-benefits in decision making, considering equality, resilience and health, for example, the Welsh Government’s Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.
• Taking practical steps, even if they could be contentious.
• Encouraging high-level elected members and decision makers to consider the climate and biodiversity emergencies and related issues in all decisions.

Planning policy

• Adopting changes to planning policy to challenge opposition and scepticism.
• Developing a policy in the local plan to require new residential developments to be built to zero carbon standards through minimising energy use and using renewable energy, for example, Reading Borough Council.

Strategy

• Identifying specific actions that support the council's climate change action plan – provide the 'how' to the 'what' that is pledged and identify the funding needed and timescale for action.
• Including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and carbon in strategies, for example, Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Building policy

• Embedding sustainability in building-use strategies.
• Assessing building and energy requirements at a local level and producing local strategies – making the issues smaller geographically.

Energy strategy 

• Carrying out local area energy planning to provide better information to facilitate the process and engage the public, for example, Coventry City Council.
• Getting involved with energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation area-based schemes that fit into and complement national schemes, and which provide short-term actions as part of a long-term strategy, for example, Ashfield District Council.
• Developing staff skills to work on area-wide planning for domestic and commercial energy efficiency and heat schemes, with a focus on off-grid gas-heated homes and social housing.
• Adopting local heat and energy efficiency strategies (LHEES), a statutory duty to deliver emissions cuts and eradicate fuel poverty, for example, Scotland. 

Enforcement

• Mapping the energy performance of privately rented homes and target landlords in areas with the worst energy performance certificate (EPC) ratings – encouraging improvements and issuing compliance notices if action is not taken, for example, Liverpool City Council. 

Funding and investment interventions relate to budgets and funding controlled and distributed by councils.

Funding

• Running programmes that enable council residents to apply for funding to make their homes more sustainable, for example, Innovate 2 Renovate in Stroud.
• Maintaining an up-to-date list of potential funding sources.
• Empowering residents involved in low-carbon community projects to choose how funding is used, for example, providing a small grant and letting them decide how to use it.
• Allocating capital budget to retrofitting and new builds, including engagement with the rental market.
• Reviewing communications about funding and grant availability to see if it can be improved.
• Exploring funding opportunities to develop heat networks, for example, the Heat Network Delivery Unit.​
• Tackling fuel poverty and health issues that are worsened by the cold, for example, Walsall Council’s Eco-flex. 

Community engagement

• Setting up a youth council to be a sounding board and provide input for changes.​
• Engaging more of the population in local politics to increase voter turnout, for example, links with schools.
• Promoting affordable retrofit options to homeowners to make it more accessible.
• Getting people excited about retrofit, through community events and information sharing.
• Facilitating community-driven decision making.
• Joining up services and grouping them together at the same location, ensuring this makes sense to users.
• Engaging with communities to review and update priorities.
• Creating space for innovation – both physical spaces and online.
• Empowering the community to co-create and take ownership of relevant projects thereby maximising chances of success.
• Using technology to engage people.

Green jobs

• Introducing training programmes and lifelong learning to embed new building practices in professions.
• Supporting regional working and training to strengthen the local green economy. ​

Training

• Delivering information and media literacy training for residents to enable engagement with sustainability and encourage critical thinking.
• Offering training in sustainable building practices for people working in building trades and design.
• Enabling training and development opportunities to be accessed more widely across sectors.
• Offering up-to-date externally delivered training on sustainable practices for council employees, for example, carbon literacy training. ​
• Promoting the Housing, Innovation, Construction & Skills Academy (HICSA) to build skills and tackle migration to other areas by qualifying people for local job opportunities. ​
• Rolling out training for local workers on green skills, Carbon Literacy, and aspects of sustainability related to their roles. ​
• Learning from examples of successful training and reskilling, for example, the Low Carbon Academy upskilling workers in the construction industry in Greater Manchester. ​
• Introducing initiatives to train young women in basic construction skills, such as joinery, painting and decorating, mechanics, and upcycling, for example, the She Shed Project, Derry City and Strabane.
• Upskilling energy, housing and environment staff to work on area-wide planning for domestic and commercial building energy efficiency and heat schemes, with a focus on off-grid gas fuelled homes and social housing.

Communication

• Reviewing communications to make connections between local politics and real-life impact.
• Using storytelling to tell communities how projects and actions could affect individuals.
• Sharing effective communications about funding and grant availability.
• Sharing effective communications about schemes such as proposed cycle paths. ​
• Reviewing consumer messaging and how to target different groups of people. ​
• Getting people excited about zero and low-energy homes, by telling engaging stories that educate and explain the benefits.
• Carrying out awareness-raising on climate change and sustainability across communities, for example, through communications.
• Generating demand for sustainable building by sharing success stories that demonstrate the benefits of sustainable building and how projects can be approached. ​
• Expanding mailing lists, inviting people to connect on social media, and holding events to engage new people, for example, Luton Borough Council.
• Communicating with stakeholders through existing initiatives, for example, Transition Towns.

Education

• Delivering more climate change and sustainability education at all levels to increase people’s understanding of issues, change behaviour and build skills.
• Teaching children about sustainability and how buildings can be sustainable.
• Developing the skills of young people who will work in designing and building future buildings and retrofitting existing buildings.
• Starting a reading scheme for two to five-year-olds about climate change and how to look after the world we live in.
• Running projects with schools to build energy literacy.

Evaluation

• Introducing practices that improve data quality, for example, using tools to calculate embedded carbon.
• Applying the doughnut economics model (or similar) to evaluation to take social and environmental considerations into account.
• Measuring the co-benefits of interventions (for example, warmer homes, happier residents) and embedding related key performance indicators (KPIs) in services. ​ 

Internal collaboration

• Moving away from siloed working within councils and services by establishing a forum to make decisions collectively.
• Encouraging and enabling communication within and between councils.
• Promoting links between service areas.

Networks

• Working with social and private landlords where building users can’t make changes to buildings themselves.
• Creating a joined-up network of services that aim to support vulnerable residents facing fuel poverty, for example, Islington Council.
• Carrying out community mapping and movement mapping to build a network of allies in communities.

Knowledge sharing

• Sharing stories about low carbon communities to inspire others and learn from the experiences of previous and ongoing projects.
• Working with retrofit specialists to provide advice to housing associations, for example, Lewisham Future Fit Streets.
• Setting up advice services to support people who are able to pay for retrofitting, for example, Innovate to Renovate being developed by London South Bank University and Ashden.
• Providing information in appropriate and accessible formats.
• Improving the quality of publicly available datasets, for example, by linking with universities.
• Appointing trusted advisors to support low carbon community projects to increase buy-in from residents.
• Using existing services to provide information to residents on energy efficiency improvements and retrofit, for example, Warm Spaces.
• Breaking down jargon through information services, for example, libraries.
• Sharing practice with other councils and partners.
• Showcasing and highlighting case studies from the locality that demonstrate success. 

Co-benefits

• Embedding co-benefits in decision making, considering equality, resilience and health, for example, the Welsh Government’s Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.
• Measuring co-benefits (for example, warmer homes, happier residents) and embedding related key performance indicators (KPIs) in services.
• Delivering deep retrofit measures to homes to promote local supply chains, develop the business case and lower emissions, for example, London Councils and Cornwall.
• Introducing schemes to tackle fuel poverty and reduce the impact of health conditions worsened by living in cold homes, for example, Walsall Council’s Eco-flex, which broadens out Energy Company Obligation (ECO) funding.
• Making homes more energy efficient and creating green jobs through training schemes.

Redesigning systems

• Moving away from the energy performance certificate (EPC) database and adopting efficiency indicators for local areas.
• Measuring the social value of projects and actions.
• Exploring whether buildings are needed to deliver council services.
• Joining up services and grouping them together at the same location, ensuring this makes sense to users.  ​
• Designing towns and cities where amenities are accessible on foot within 15 minutes, for example, Incitu in Leeds.  

Business norms

• Exploring whether buildings are needed to deliver council services.
• Reflecting on requirements for buildings to deliver services.
• Building social value into the business case for sustainability projects and actions.

Leadership

• Leading by example, for example, rationalising buildings, reducing energy use, becoming more efficient.
• Implementing innovative initiatives to embed sustainability – not being afraid to try something new.
• Reviewing internal structures and culture to reduce siloed working and promote distributed responsibility and leadership, example: Cornwall Council Doughnut Economics.

Political engagement

• Empower local residents to take action.
• Encouraging citizens to take responsibility to join the conversation and engage with local politics.
• Listening to citizens who want change to happen – considering the political pressure from the public.

Public perceptions

• Getting people excited about prioritising sustainable building and retrofit, through communications, engagement and behaviour change. ​
• Leveraging prestige and pride, for example, through supporting people to share their good practice examples.
• Strengthening public support for changes to communities and services to improve sustainability, for example, through storytelling.
• Sharing sustainable building success stories to communicate practices and the benefits that will lead to the necessary shift in the sector and wider culture.

Responsibility

• Maintaining the ambition to move forward to achieve net zero.

Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council

Warm and Safe Wiltshire

The ‘Warm and Safe’ initiative was set up to reduce fuel poverty and related excess winter deaths and hospital admissions in Wiltshire. The initiative provides a single point of contact for energy advice and guidance. ‘Warm and Safe ‘advisors offer home visits, advice, assistance with access to funding, and installation of energy-saving measures. The project partners with local charities and organisations and provides training to healthcare staff to identify signs of fuel poverty, making efforts to ensure support reaches particularly vulnerable or overlooked residents, such as the boater and traveller communities. Having one single point of contact made it possible to target multiple co-benefits, and to access wider funding streams.

Lancaster City Council

The Lancaster Local Plan

Lancaster City Council carried out a climate emergency review of its local plan to ensure the strategy aligned with the council’s climate emergency commitments. Sustainable design and construction is a focus of the revised plan, with a ‘fabric-first’ approach. This requires all buildings to be energy efficient, with high levels of insulation and passive cooling measures such as shutters and shading. The policy exceeds government requirements by requiring that by 2028 all new developments must be zero carbon from inception, rather than being ‘zero carbon ready’.

The plan also includes written input from Historic England and allows for responsible retrofitting of historic buildings. This enables the character of historic buildings to be retained while cutting emissions. Further inclusions relate to consideration of new buildings’ lifecycle carbon emissions, from planning to demolition; supporting local supply chains and reusing and recycling materials; and installing sustainable draining systems and opposing developments that cause loss of green and blue (for example, rivers, lakes) spaces.