News

SE24 Community Energy

14 September 2015: Encouraging to see Dulwich & West Norwood MP Helen Hayes raise in the House of Commons London community energy group, SE24, concerns over the government’s current Feed in Tariff consultation (in short “it is hard to see how any community energy group can continue on this basis”). Read more on SE24’s website here.

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The Pope’s Encyclical on Climate Change & Cities

19 June 2015: It’s unlikely I’m going to get through the  full 180 pages of the Pope’s Encyclical on Climate Change (by the way – if you’re looking for the contents page – it’s at the end of the document), but I did want to see if there was anything there on cities – and was pleased to see that there is specific consideration on how the quality of life of urban dwellers is impacted on by the state of the environment around them.

Selected below are parts of the Encyclical that touch upon the challenges placed upon cities due to environmental stresses and increasing climate change.  Much of it is quite general, and much of it is probably more targeted at those growing mega-cities of the South – but the points equally resonate to pockets of deprivation in London as well as in many other developed cities.

“44. Nowadays, for example, we are conscious of the disproportionate and unruly growth of many cities, which have become unhealthy to live in, not only because of pollution caused by toxic emissions but also as a result of urban chaos, poor transportation, and visual pollution and noise. Many cities are huge, inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of energy and water. Neighbourhoods, even those recently built, are congested, chaotic and lacking in sufficient green space. We were not meant to be inundated by cement, asphalt, glass and metal, and deprived of physical contact with nature.

Continue reading…

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Thames tidal flood defence inspection under way

27 May 2015: ENDS journal reports that “The Environment Agency (EA) has started detailed engineering and structural investigations into the condition of tidal flood defences in London and the Thames estuary.” The work is being carried out as part of the Environment Agency’s (EA) ten-year Thames Estuary Asset Management programme to refurbish and replace tidal flood defences in London and the Thames estuary (more info on TEAM2100 here), and the agency recently awarded the 10-year refurbishment deal to Balfour Beatty to run the project which is worth £250 million.

A great piece in The Guardian earlier this year on the Thames Barrier asks how safe is London from another major flood?

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Quietways

April 2015: Tfl have posted information online of a helpful initiative they’re calling ‘Quietways’.

“Quietways will be a network of radial and orbital cycle routes throughout London. Linking key destinations, they will follow backstreet routes, through parks, along waterways or tree-lined streets.”

TfL are working in partnership with London boroughs and managing authorities to deliver seven Quietway routes by mid-2016:

  • Waterloo to Greenwich (Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Greenwich) (

    route map)

  • Bloomsbury to Walthamstow (first phase to Mare Street) (Camden, Islington, Hackney, Waltham Forest) 

TfL say that maps for the further five routes are to be made available during spring 2015.

  • Regents Park to Gladstone Park (Dollis Hill) (Westminster, Brent, Camden)
  • Elephant & Castle to Crystal Palace (City, Southwark, Lambeth)
  • Aldgate to Hainault (first phase Whitechapel to Fulwell Cross) (Tower Hamlets, Newham, Redbridge, Hackney, and the London Legacy Development Corporation)
  • Waterloo to Wimbledon (via Clapham Common) (Lambeth, Wandsworth, Merton)
  • Clapham Common to Croydon (Lambeth, Wandsworth, Croydon).

Further proposals to support cycling in London can be read here.

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Harrow Energy Masterplan to be developed

March 2015: Not much information here – but a tender from Harrow Borough Council looking for a consultant to help develop an energy masterplan for the Heart of Harrow regeneration area.

An earlier consultation document issued by the council sets out that “Within the Heart of Harrow, a district-wide combined heat and power network is promoted. There are already specific proposals to deliver district energy on a number of our major sites, but no masterplanning has yet been undertaken to establish the feasibility of a wider network. Neither has additional feasibility work been undertaken to develop business cases for individual schemes.Our strategy is to pursue district energy opportunities within the Heart of Harrow area, both on our own redevelopment sites and on other major development schemes. We will be preparing an energy master plan and, where appropriate,additional feasibility studies to map the potential district energy programme for the Heart of Harrow in more detail” – which must be what the consultant for this work must be undertaking.

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Energy & Climate Questions to the Mayor

January 2015:  This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to:

Fuel Povery and Children; Meetings of the Mayor’s London Green Infrastructure Task Force;  Membership of the Mayor’s London Green Infrastructure Task Force;  London Plan policies encouraging development of solar farms;  consideration of carbon emissions in policy decision making
Invitation to attend the European Capital Cities meeting ahead of the Paris 2015 IPCC summit; Progress made in 2014 to delivering the London Climate Change Adaptation Strategy; Measuring CO2 emissions across the GLA Group; An update on the GLA group’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) reports; the Mayor’s concern over increasing signs of climate change; GLA Economics analysis on energy
Communication to the Treasury over tax incentives for community energy projects; TfL’s hedging policy on energy prices; Misleading information on shale gas; Reallocation of RE:NEW funds to RE:FIT programme; Havering Solar Farm planning application; New powers to Ofgem; RE:NEW programme underspend; An update on RE:NEW programme projectionsResearch commissioned by the GLA’s Environment Team
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London Green Infrastructure Taskforce details revealed

27 January 2015: The Mayor had previously announced in his draft London 2050 Infrastructure Plan that a new London Green Infrastructure Taskforce was to be established (details of which are provided on a previous post here). Membership of the Taskforce has now been revealed, as well the group’s terms of reference and minutes of their first meeting.

The purpose of the Taskforce is set out as:

“to bring together a wide range of interests and expertiseto identify how to encourage a more strategic and long-term approach to investment in and delivery of green infrastructure, which is defined as:

A network of green spaces – and features such as street trees and green roofs – that is planned, designed and managed to deliver a range of benefits, including: recreation and amenity, healthy living, mitigating flooding, improving air quality, cooling the urban environment, encouraging walking and cycling, and enhancing biodiversity and ecological resilience.

It will prepare a report advising the Mayor on the strategic issues which need to be addressed in relation to the design, management and operation of London’s green infrastructure.”

Further details of the Task Force are posted on the GLA website here. Papers from the Taskforce’s first meeting, held on 21 November 2014 – are linked below

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Energy Efficient Cafe in Peckham

31 December 2014: Short profile of Lerryn’s Cafe  in Peckham in Guardian feature on energy efficiency initiatives by cafes.

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Everything you wanted to ask about fracking in London…

December 2014: Fracking of shale gas has been added to the mix of energy issues that have dominated headlines over the past year. A surprising element to the debate however has been the potential for fracking gas in London.

Things were kick started by the Mayor back in 2013 (2 July) with a letter to the Times, raising concerns about how London might be facing future powe blackouts, where he also added if reserves of shale can be exploited in London we should leave no stone unturned, or unfracked, in the cause of keeping the lights on” (Times letter – behind paywall – here; letter also covered in following Guardian article). The Mayor similarly supported the wider use of fracking in an article in The Sun in September 2013. Continue reading…

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Tower Hamlets insulates

25 December 2014: Hackney Gazette story on abseiling engineers providing insulation to a number of tower blocks in Tower Hamlets. Energy supplier EDF Energy is funding the work as part of their Energy Company Obligation (ECO) targets.

EDF state that this is one of the largest ECO projects they have worked on with a London borough with some 500 homes included in the scheme on the Bancroft, Avebury, St Stephen’s and Chicksand estates. Work is expected to be complete by March, 2016.

Tower Hamlets has set out its ambition to access ECO funding in its recent 2014/15 Sustainability Action Plan. This work has been planned for sometime now – details of which are set out in a 2013 approval paper from Tower Hamlets council here. Delays have been most likely been caused through the Government’s changes to the ECO programme which the Prime Minister ordered in December 2013 (to which many concerns were raised by practioners to a DECC blog on the ECO changes earlier this year (search for words ‘Brent’ and ‘London’ in blog)).

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London Private Rented Sector energy efficiency push

19 December 2014: A mayoral approval document outlines support to two new projects to save energy and carbon in properties in the private rented sector (PRS) and to boost membership of the London Rental Standard (LRS).

The Mayor has approved:

  • Expenditure of £141,000 of capital grant funding and £45,000 of revenue funding including for assessments and testimonial material to support delivery of at least 50 demonstration projects with LRS-accredited landlords, each resulting in a retrofitted PRS home and raising awareness of the benefits that can be achieved.
  • Expenditure of up to £80,000 revenue funding for the development and implementation of a pilot programme to trial the use of incentive payments to LRS-accredited lettings agents for achieving retrofit works on at least 400 PRS properties they let or manage on behalf of private landlords.
  • Expenditure of up to £20,000 revenue funding for the evaluation of both projects.

The approval document sets out the strong rationale for driving ahead the energy efficiency message in the PRS:

  • the PRS accounts for a quarter of London’s housing stock (850,000), is growing fast (nearly doubling in size since 2000)
  • the Energy Act 2011 requires that from 2016 it will be unlawful for landlords to refuse reasonable requests from tenants for energy efficiency improvements, and from 2018 it will become unlawful to rent out EPC F and G rated properties (see DECC’s recent consultation on PRS Energy Efficiency regulations here
  • the Landlords Energy Saving Allowance (LESA), a tax allowance of up to £1,500 per building per year, is available but will end on 6 April 2015
  • the PRS is the worst performing sector in terms of quality of stock. 17% of PRS tenants are in fuel poverty, while 30% of PRS homes fall below the Decent Homes standard (compared with 10% and 21% across London overall).

Full details of each programme is set out in the approval form. The project will be overseen by the Mayor’s Housing Investment Group, which has previously discussed this initiative (see item 8 of minutes) and raised a number of issues including:

  • reasons for targeting PRS properties rather than owner-occupied properties
  • Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) had not yet had a big impact but this would likely to change as from 2017
  • Questions were raised as to whether the scheme would be replicable on a greater scale. The Group heard that, if successful, the programme could be scaled-up and delivered through energy suppliers or contractors, as part of their marketing budgets. A discussion was held regarding the potential involvement of energy suppliers to incentivise the programme. It was agreed that while this could be looked at for future iterations of the programme, to engage energy suppliers at this stage would complicate and delay the start of the programme.
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Three quarters of councils are switching off or dimming streetlights

22 December 2014: “Of Britain’s 5.7 million streetlights 558,000 now being shut off at night, an eight fold increase on 2010, figures showAccording to a major survey of the 141 of the 150 councils in charge of lighting Britain’s streets 50 have switched some lights off altogether, 98 councils have decided to dim at least some streetlights. Overall 106 of the 141 councils, doing one or the other, or both figures obtained by Labour Party from FOI requests reveal.”
Read full Daily Telegraph article here.

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