Agenda item

To receive the report of the Strategic Director for Place and to hear evidence from the Centre for Energy and the Environment.

The Strategic Director for Place introduced the report and invited the Research Fellow to the table and made the following points:

·        this was a powerful report with scenarios from across council services;

·        this was the first report in the country to provide true costs to a council for their carbon reduction; and

·        the report was ground-breaking and thanks were given to the Research Fellow and the team at South West Energy and Environment Group (SWEEG) for giving such rich information without charge.

The Research Fellow gave apologies from the author who was unable to be present, and presented the report making the following points:

·        social housing was very important to footprint;

·        the net present value was not included due to a short timescale;

·        F gases often included but relatively small and bundled with buildings for the purposes of this report;

·        Business as Usual(BAU) included those things which were already planned or committed to;

·        the Max position would just get the council to net zero by 2030 and was the best case scenario;

·        insulation was planned at the point of change of tenancy to avoid disruption to tenants;

·        electricity usage was going down despite the increased use of devices;

·        heating by heat pump was more efficient than electric heating;

·        capital expenditure was needed for social housing;

·        operational expenditure would decrease over time with non-domestic properties but there would be a spike in capital expenditure;

·        transport required capital cost due to leasing of vehicles;

·        renewable energy would be achieved by installing PV at greater rates on home with some non-domestic but the Max would be achieved by installing larger ground-mounted PV;

·        land use change was limited to tree planting to increase canopy cover and the Max option would be 100% cover which would be unrealistic, however, planting new trees could also disturb carbon;

·        net zero would not be achieved without addressing housing which was costly and not necessarily easy;

·        electrification of traffic could happen quickly as the infrastructure was already in place; and

·        BAU and Mid options would not achieve net zero by 2030, the Max option would but it was ambitious.

The research Fellow, Strategic Director for Place and Portfolio Holder for Climate, Ecological Change and Communities responded to Members’ questions in the following terms:

·        the report was transparent on the sources used and methodology could also be seen with factors available from Government as they were those used by the Climate Change Committee;

·        data was pooled with other authorities through SWEEG;

·        Cornwall were look at a shared ground look;

·        the amount of money needed for housing meant that supportive policies would be needed and direct incentives for people to move to heat pumps;

·        there was a toolkit for householders, community groups and businesses on the council website;

·        there was support for Exeter Community Energy;

·        figures regarding housing were taken from discussion with the Housing Team and maybe based on the cost to the council rather than market value but he would look into this;

·        ‘current trajectory’ rather than BAU would be taken back to the author and Cornwall used ‘best outlook pathway’

·        the author was a certified Passivhaus designer and it was a myth that Passivhaus’ were hermetically sealed rather ventilation was managed and these home were better insulated to keep warm or cool when needed’

·        the need to keep internal doors open or closed would depend on the way the individual house was set up and its individual sensors;

·        it was important that those living in a Passivhaus understood the house and that they were given information about how the house worked otherwise energy bills would remain high;

·        the Strategic Director would respond outside the meeting regarding leased out assets on page 25 and whether some of these could be in scope 1;

·        it was an aspiration for all new houses to be built to Passivhaus standard and some had been with Vaughn Road as a great achievement;

·        Passivhaus was one approach and design solution to achieve a high level of energy efficiency but there were others as well;

·        as a stock owner and landlord the council must also consider costs to tenants and it was currently cheaper to hear with gas;

·        the report was informative but wouldn’t be used to make decisions; and

·        all issues must be considered including but not limited to maintaining design excellence and carbon reduction.

Following a unanimous vote the Strategic Scrutiny Committee noted the report.