Conservation Area Toolkit

RESEARCH

Our ‘Climate Emergency Conservation Area Toolkit’ aims to provide a methodology with a worked example to update Conservation Area Guidance which will allow more complete Climate Emergency Retrofitting. It addresses aspects of retrofitting heritage and non-heritage in Conservation Areas which involve planning. These are generally exterior building changes that impact appearance of the Conservation Area.

With 20% of total UK carbon emissions coming from our 29 million existing households there is an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions in all housing stock including Conservation Areas. The 2021 ‘LETI Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide’ estimates that heritage or architectural constraints involve 25% of all UK homes.These heritage or architecturally constrained homes emit more carbon than typical homes, therefore at quarter of all homes they contribute more than 5% of total UK Carbon emissions. This is a percentage that can’t be ignored on the road to Net Zero nationwide.

DOWNLOAD PDF COPY (16.6MB)

We held an amazing launch event on 6/12/22.

Click below to view the event video on our YouTube channel.

Speakers:

• Chris Procter, Toolkit lead Author
• Caroline Russell, Cllr Islington & GLA
• Will South, Etude, LETI
• Chris Jofeh, chair Wales Decarbonisation
• Sarah Buckingham, RBKC Conservation

Local Government must introduce the following measures;

Local Development Consent Orders,
Local Listed Building Consent Orders.

Local Authorities to make use of new Local Development Consent Orders and Local Listed Building Consent Orders on both Non-listed and Listed Buildings for Solar, External Wall Insulation, Window replacement, Chimneys, Parapet walls, and other measures as relevant locally. Refer to Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea for recent LLBCO March 2022 Solar and current LLBCO consultation for Double Glazing.

Local Supplementary Planning Documents.

SPD guides to be written as detailed Pattern Books to supplement CA Guides
using local experts and community group input. These to go beyond current SPD with house typology solutions, detailed technical drawings and manufacturers’ lists. These may change over time but should be regularly updated for best contemporary practice of retrofit and heritage construction. Details are very helpful as previous planning diagrams are unclear and often not aligned to other regulation. This precision will result in streamlining future planning for homeowners and planners necessary for a more rapid roll-out of retrofit to NetZero.

Local Conservation Area Guidance.

Conservation Area Documents to be progressively updated with new Appraisal Management Plans with Building and Element Audits as per this toolkit. Conservation Appraisal Guidance to list individual buildings by street number that are suitable for each measure, See LB Islington draft revised CA13 Toolkit page 159 .

Read the Toolkit and become familiar with the key principles.
​
Read Households Declare retrofit data:
https://www.householdsdeclare.org/context

Read NPPF 2021, page 15 Tailoring planning controls to local circumstances, paragraphs 51-54. Development Orders
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework–2

Examples -Double Glazing, Solar in RBKC
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https://planningconsult.rbkc.gov.uk/LLBCO/consultationHome
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https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/newsroom/solar-power-more-homes-kensington-and-chelsea

Check your local council progress and join local campaign groups in your area. Discuss issues of this report locally to apply what is most relevant. Send this report to your Councillors and Planning Department.

LB Islington Example.
Here is an example of a local campaign that you could start in your area which will be sent to councillors and trigger debate in council after 2000 signatures.

https://bit.ly/3TyVlDQ
(Please only Islington residents sign.)