A User Guide to Development Management DPD Policy DM30a

This User Guide aims to plainly set out the approach that Lancaster City Council is taking in tackling the climate emergency in relation to energy efficiency targets in new developments. Lancaster City Council is committed to reducing energy use in new buildings, particularly new homes, to reduce CO2e emissions and energy costs for homeowners.

The council has taken an innovative approach to achieve this, through commencing a Climate Emergency Local Plan Review. The review includes a new policy called Policy DM30a: Sustainable Design and Construction which focuses on how to reduce carbon emissions in new buildings, with a focus on residential development. The approach taken in Policy DM30a means that energy use and its associated carbon emissions are reduced, contributing to reducing the impacts buildings have on the climate. It also means that new homes in the district will not be reliant on the national grid decarbonising to meet net zero targets, and that the building is future proofed for homeowners so that they will only need to add limited technology (like solar panels) at a later date for homes to become net zero or carbon plus; if they are not so already when the house is built.

The Government have concluded that Local Authorities are able to set their own energy efficiency standard.  Lancaster City Council are setting their own standards as set out in Policy DM30a of the Climate Emergency Local Plan Review (CELPR).  The CELPR was adopted by Lancaster City Council on 22 ^nd  January 2025.  The policy proposes the following:

Development proposals for all new build residential development will be required to achieve the following:

On adoption of this Local Plan:

• A minimum 31% reduction in carbon emissions against Part L of the Building Regulations 2013 expressed as a % uplift of the dwelling’s Target Emissions Rate (TER).
• By 01/01/2025: A fabric first approach shall be used to reach a minimum 75% reduction in carbon emissions against Part L of the Building Regulations 2013 expressed as a % uplift of the dwelling’s TER.
• By 01/01/2028:
• A 100% reduction (Net Zero) in carbon emissions associated with regulated energy against Part L of the Building Regulations 2013 expressed as a % uplift of the dwelling’s TER.

The carbon emission reduction requirements will apply at the date of commencement of each new dwelling.

Climate change has become a frequent feature on the news. It is becoming increasingly severe, and the impacts of the changes are affecting us in more ways. This may be from floods some years and droughts in others, or from winters without snow to more summers with high temperatures that we only used to see once every few years. The changing climate is becoming so severe that many organisations are now calling it a climate crisis or a climate emergency. Lancaster City Council has been also discussing it more, particularly since the Climate Emergency declaration in 2019. The  council joined thousands of Local Authorities  across the globe to help slow climate change and help their communities adapt to the effects of what is happening. This declaration committed Lancaster City Council to ensuring that the district reaches net zero emissions by 2030. One of the ways that the council is helping the district to reach net zero is by completing a Climate Emergency Local Plan Review. The review has looked at key policies in the Local Plan with direct links to climate adaptation and mitigation and examines how they can most impactfully support the transition to a net zero future.

Climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions from many of the activities that occur in day-to-day life. These emissions can come from things like burning fossil fuels (oil, coal, and gas) to create electricity, run heating systems, or drive cars, for example. They can also come from things like nitrogen fertilisers used to grow grains, fruit, and veg or the methane produced by the cows that supply dairy and beef.

These greenhouse gases include things like methane, nitrous oxides, and carbon dioxide. We measure the global warming potential of all the greenhouse gases against carbon dioxide and so we can talk about all of them at once these are called carbon dioxide equivalent emissions or CO2e emissions or simply carbon emissions. Therefore, when we talk about carbon emissions, it includes all greenhouse gas emissions that are impacting the climate. We must reduce our carbon emissions as soon as possible. Without this intervention, irreversible damage to the Earth and its ecosystems and communities will be unavoidable. However, society does not have to come to a halt to reduce emissions and help the climate to stabilise. Taking steps to reduce our carbon emissions has many ‘co-benefits’ that make the places we live more affordable, healthier, more pleasant, greener, and cleaner places to live.

In the UK, buildings and how they are used are responsible for about 20% of all carbon emissions (BEIS, 2024). That means that, in most cases, the electricity, heating, cooling, and hot water used every day are directly contributing to climate change. This energy (either from electricity, gas, or oil) also comes at a financial cost. Current market changes are difficult for many to manage and is impacting the quality of people’s lives. However, the knowledge, design, and technology already exist to create buildings which require much less energy to run. Using these designs and technology can provide homes that will minimise damage to the climate and enable co-benefits, such as reduced energy bills and warmer homes, to improve people’s standard of living.

Lancaster City Council’s adopted DM30a sets out a ‘fabric first approach’ as the primary way to achieve carbon emission reductions in housing. This refers to a building’s ‘fabric’ or the external walls, roof, ground floor, windows and doors or the part of the house that defines what is inside and what is outside. When we talk about a fabric first approach it is a focus on the actual construction of the building, including how it is built and what it is built with.

To reduce carbon emissions, and also save money on energy bills, energy use must be reduced in homes. Therefore, the goal is to build homes which use less energy than homes built previously. The most impactful way to complete this is through building homes differently. The focus must be on how to reduce the amount of heat lost from a home. This is to ensure heating does not need to be boosted to achieve a comfortable temperature indoors. The focus also needs to be on how to make sure that the sun is used to heat the building in winter but does not overheat it in summer. It must also be ensured that as much natural sunlight as possible is able to enter the building to reduce electricity used for lighting.

In terms of a fabric first approach, there are many things that can be done to reduce energy use. This includes improved insulation, building in airtightness (no draughts), improved window glazing to prevent heat loss and for natural solar heat gains, having improved doors, having more insulated floors, amongst other features. This will save energy and, therefore, money and emissions.

It is possible to have a net zero carbon or even carbon (energy) plus home by producing renewable energy (for example through rooftop solar panels) where the energy generated matches or even exceeds the energy demand of the home. A net zero home is also possible by removing gas connection from the home and waiting for the grid to decarbonise through shutting down all fossil fuel power stations and generating power from renewables, hydrogen, and nuclear. This is the approach that the Government is taking through their Future Homes Standard. In the Government’s proposals, carbon emission reductions are mostly made from ‘bolt on’ technology like heat pumps and solar panels rather than reducing energy demand. However, there are some issues with this.

The Government are proposing homes with a 75-80% carbon emission reduction against the 2013 Building Standards, beginning in 2025, but the remaining 20-25% of emissions are reliant upon the grid decarbonising which will not be until 2035 at the earliest.   

Another issue with this approach is that this does not reduce the energy demand of the house. This is a problem because reducing energy use is a priority to make costs lower and a home more comfortable for the occupant. In some cases, where technology like heat pumps is used in a home with poor building fabric, there is a risk that energy use can be even higher. Also, while carbon emissions associated with electricity can be reduced through installing technology, such as solar panels, this cannot drastically decrease emissions singlehandedly as they are often unable to provide the entire electricity needed to a house where energy efficiency measures have not been installed. Therefore, rather than reduce energy use, they supplement it with greener energy which provides some emission reductions, but these savings are not maximised as is the case when installing energy reduction measures; cost savings may also not be made.

The table below displays a side-by-side comparison for carbon emissions between the Government’s Future Homes Standard and Lancaster City Council’s DM30a.

The approaches to these emissions reductions are, however, slightly different. This is because Lancaster City Council is requiring that carbon reductions be made in first instance by reducing energy rather than just replacing it with green energy.

Lancaster City Council’s and Central Government’s targets are mostly aligned regarding carbon reduction; however, Lancaster City Council take a step further in 2028 for net zero homes. Lancaster City Council also specify a fabric-first approach following the energy hierarchy to ensure that carbon reductions are made without reliance on grid decarbonisation. If the grid does decarbonise, then houses built to the Government’s proposed standard will be zero carbon ready.  However, reducing energy use is important both to reduce the cost of living for occupants, and for occupants to be resilient to grid variability as climate change may disrupt large scale energy production. Hence why Lancaster City Council have chosen the fabric first and energy hierarchy approach to reduce energy use.

The council’s approach also specifies in policy DM30 that in the possible event of national building regulations being updated or if there is any change in planning policy or legislation which require higher standards to be met than those set out in the Local Plan, these will supersede the local policy requirement. Any change in the implementation of this policy will be set out in further guidance published separately by the council.

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• Email:   planningpolicy@lancaster.gov.uk  
• Phone: 01524 582383