Housing and development
The energy we use to heat and light our homes is the second biggest contributor to our emissions, and increasingly, as recent events have shown, our homes are at significant risk of climate impacts such as flooding.
We need to both address energy consumption and improve the efficiency of the places we live in, through designing more high-quality housing and retrofitting our existing properties.
This will reduce our bills, reduce our risks to extreme weather events and create more appealing spaces for our communities.
With nearly half a million homes in Surrey and growing, this will be tough. What measure do you think can be taken to accelerate this process?
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Updated 11 May 2020
Updated 11 May 2020
Surrey's Greener Future
Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2DW
Penrhyn Road
Kingston upon Thames
KT1 2DW
© Surrey County Council 2020
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Surrey's Greener Future
Penrhyn Road
Kingston upon Thames
KT1 2DW
© Surrey County Council 2020
Made By 
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We’ve just completed a new house with an EPC of 97 and I estimate the additional costs at between 5 and 10% over a traditional built to current standards. My main comment is why don’t we set building regs with a forward looking set of objectives such that every two or three years they ratchet standards up a bit so that in say 10 years, every new house is near zero energy. We know that volume reduces costs. It’s happened to solar panel (down by 80% per kWh) air source heat pumps and batteries, (both static and for cars) . For info we have very high levels of insulation (non petroleum based), a very airtight house, an air source heat pump, solar PV, and mechanical heat recovery ventilation. We have a battery too (Tesla) for which the payback is marginal and we use only green, overnight cheap rate electricity from Octopus (5p a unit) , storing enough to run the house in winter on all but the coldest days. There’s a lot can be done to the existing housing stock, but it’s much more complex
All new houses and apartment building should be built not only with ground source heat pumps but with solar and electric charge points in every new home that is being built or will be built in the future.
Join up planning to ensure housing developments are close to major areas of employment to reduce impact on the couties infrastructure
Many more trees need to be planted in the new housing devolpments. Also with every housing devolpment over 20 houses there should be a mandatory wildlife pond.