Cllr Johnny Thalassites is the Cabinet Member for Planning, Place and the Environment on Kensington and Chelsea Council.
We need to be innovative to tackle the climate emergency and I’m proud that Kensington and Chelsea is the first council to introduce a planning order to make solar power a realistic choice for more people.
Our new planning order gives consent for solar panels on most Grade II and most Grade II * listed buildings without the need for individual listed building consent. If the building is residential, planning permission is already not needed, so installing solar panels will be much simpler in the future for homeowners. Removing barriers to green energy is vital because 80 percent of the borough’s carbon emissions come from buildings. With 4,000 listed buildings in Kensington and Chelsea, we’ll need more of these homes and businesses running on renewables if we are going to be carbon neutral by 2040.
Many local authorities face the same challenges: private stock produces the lion share of carbon emissions. So, how can the state get out of the way and make it easier for people to take action to reduce emissions? A new local listed building consent order has helped us do just that on solar.
But it is important that we do not allow a free-for-all. Making it easier to green your home cannot become a blank check.
We know that protecting the unique character of our borough and its beautiful buildings is important, but we also know that solar panels can be installed without being visible at street level and without causing any damage to the building.
That is why our order includes solar PV panels, as well as solar tiles or slates, or solar thermal panels. And that is why, crucially, there are conditions about the positioning, materials and fixings that can be used, to protect the appearance and fabric of listed buildings – this will just need a simple application to the Council.
Letting local people install solar panels, whilst protecting the unique character of our neighborhoods – striking a balance – meant we could win support from residents’ associations across the borough, as well as individuals and the Historic Houses Association.
Buildings are the biggest carbon emitter in Kensington and Chelsea. Moving to renewable energy will help reduce the borough’s reliance on carbon heavy fuels like gas and oil.
The Council is working to decarbonise its own housing stock, with an estimated cost of around £ 100m. Work has already begun on plans for a heat network in Notting Dale and retrofitting homes on the Lancaster West estate, with the ambition of making it a modern 21st century social housing estate and eco-neighborhood.
But it is because we know more must be done to support a transition to cheaper, greener energy that we are piloting new orders. Whilst recent energy bill rebates have helped some of our must vulnerable residents and it may be useful for national and local government to invest in energy efficiency projects in council homes, neither of those efforts can cover all households. Policy needs to drive investment in environmentally-friendly commercial schemes and demystify the planning system for homeowners looking to green the places they live, so that we reduce our energy needs over the long-term.
Kensington and Chelsea’s Local Plan, published in draft form earlier this year, includes a “Green-Blue” chapter that sets out how we want to help people go green. Net zero schemes are supported, as well as plans for new open space in Chelsea. This should be just the start – and all local authorities, too often hung up on housing targets, need to get serious about climate change. Most London authorities have now set 2040 net zero targets, some are still more ambitious, and more must be done to meet those targets.
That means promoting more local listed building consent orders and development consent orders to bypass time and cost-intensive planning applications. We hope to introduce a similar order on double glazing listed buildings – and a development consent order to promote heat pumps may follow. Helping people to install double glazing in their homes is probably the single most impactful thing we can do to tackle the climate emergency in conservation areas. And if streamlining the planning system – a worthy goal that may or may not survive political tumult over the coming weeks – means anything, it should mean action on energy efficiency in heritage homes.
We know there are lots more to do if Conservatives want to hold “Blue Wall” “Teal-leaning” constituencies, where climate change is an especially resonant issue. Here is an “oven ready” (too soon?) Agenda for Tories to champion in local government: removing barriers to solar power in listed buildings.
