Nuplace’s contribution to tackling climate change
There’s a lot going on in Telford and Wrekin to support the fight against climate change, from huge investment projects to community pledges which you can read about in the council’s 'Becoming carbon neutral action plan'.
Nuplace is also working towards a low carbon future and you can read more about this below.
In 2022 Nuplace completed its first sustainable housing development which was designed in accordance with Telford & Wrekin Council’s commitment to tackle climate change.
Southwater Way is a benchmark for future Nuplace sites as well as other housing schemes in the borough.
All of our properties at this site benefit from solar panels and their own electric car charging points. This step forward within Nuplace’s specification will not only reduce the scheme’s carbon footprint, but it will also help reduce fuel bills for our tenants.
Estimates suggest that solar panels fitted to an average 3 bedroom home at this development could save the household as much as £900 per year in energy bills (compared to a comparable home using fossil fuels, based on projected energy prices for 2022/23) and reduce the building’s carbon footprint by more than 400kg of carbon emissions annually – the same amount of CO2 that’s emitted by driving 1,900 miles in a diesel car.
Read what tenant Dan thinks about their new sustainable home.
At our Woodland Walk site in Muxton, Nuplace are delivering 18 of its 66 homes to Future Homes Standard. Future Homes is a new Building Regulations standard, set to come into force in 2025, which will require new homes to deliver a 75-80% reduction in carbon emissions from the previous version of the regulations. Working with development partners, Lovell, Nuplace are exploring the most efficient way to deliver a Future Homes Standard property on a standard Nuplace house type. This will be delivered through a mixture of fabric improvements to the envelope of the building, coupled with a range of technology including solar panels and battery storage, air source heat exchangers etc. These properties will be super-efficient in terms of energy use resulting in lower running costs for our tenants. At this site, we are also working with consultants, Focus, to review the embodied carbon within these Future Homes house types so we can consider the carbon footprint of these homes in its entirety and use this information to inform our future development programme.
Nuplace are also planning to deliver 117 town houses and apartments within Station Quarter at the heart of Telford Town Centre. The planning application (TWC/2022/0914) for the scheme, which was recently submitted, will deliver high-quality, energy efficient homes. This truly sustainable community will encourage active lifestyle and reduce car dependency with excellent access to town centre services and amenities as well as proximity to the rail and bus stations. To reflect this, reduced car parking numbers are being provided on site with one parking space per town house and 0.5 spaces per apartment. However, each dwelling will be provided with safe and secure cycle storage and there will be an on site “car club” where residents can hire a car by the hour.
One of the UK’s greenest ‘urban’ boroughs, we protect Telford and Wrekin’s natural spaces through the declaration of Local Nature Reserves. These wonderful council-owned spaces - now totalling 23 sites - cover an area of more than 700 hectares for you to enjoy and to help wildlife thrive. Our active investment programme is making these sites even more accessible for all.
We also protect smaller council-owned green spaces of significance to communities through our 'green guarantee' designation. This is not a planning policy but a separate council commitment. We have already designated more than 200 of these protected 'green guarantee' sites, and plan to add more soon.
With an estimated 15 million trees in Telford and Wrekin, trees on future development land are a huge priority for Nuplace.
Tackling ash dieback disease is a big challenge in Telford and Wrekin. The disease arrived in the UK in 2012 when an imported nursery tree from Asia brought it to these shores.
It is estimated that ash trees make up around 35% of our borough’s tree stock and so the potential loss of canopy cover is likely to be considerable. We are managing the diseased trees and working hard to replenish with other species across the borough.
So, if you see us felling trees near where you live, it’s highly likely it relates to this condition. Find out more about our approach to tackling the ash dieback disease.