Agenda and minutes

Venue: Online Only - Via Zoom

Contact: Hannah Stevenson  01344 352308

Link: This meeting will be held online

Media

Items
No. Item

21.

Declarations of Interest

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

 

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

 

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

22.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 274 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Climate Change Advisory Panel on 20 September 2021.

Minutes:

The minutes of the Climate Change Advisory Panel meeting held on 20 September 2021 were confirmed as a correct record.

 

Councillor Mrs Hayes reminded Members of the upcoming site visits and to confirm their attendance.

 

 

23.

Urgent Items of Business

Any other items which, pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent.

Minutes:

There were no urgent items of business.

24.

Chairman's Introduction

Minutes:

Councillor Virgo introduced the Climate Change Advisory Panel and explained that this Advisory Panel meeting would be looking at Heat Pumps.

 

The Chairman made the following recommendations, which were seconded, to Councillor Mrs Hayes, the Executive Member for Environment, who would take them forward to the Executive.

 

1.         The panel recommends that Bracknell Forest legitimise legislation in the SPD 2016 making all new development be fitted with a EV charging unit or at least electric cabling to a face plate on the exterior side of the building.

 

2.         The panel recommends that Solar PV Panels be installed as standard on all new builds.

25.

Update on the Council's decarbonation plans pdf icon PDF 365 KB

The Advisory Panel will receive an update from Kevin Gibbs, Executive Director:Delivery, Hazel Hill, Energy Sustainability Officer and Laura Johnson, Executive Director (assets & growth) Silva Homes.

 

 

https://youtu.be/ZaMuXDCu30c

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

Kevin Gibbs, Executive Director: Delivery, Hazel Hill, Energy Sustainability Officer and Laura Johnson, Executive Director (assets & growth) Silva Homes presented an update on the Council's decarbonation plans

 

The presentation covered the following highlights:

 

·       The Bracknell Forest Website was kept upto date regarding the Councils Climate Change activity and could be accessed at any time.

·       The Council had 4 principles to tackle climate change and would be measuring themselves against these principles.

·       There were 42 projects across the council directorates.

·       Big Green Week was held from19 – 26 September, which was also when the last meeting was held, the Council undertook a number of initiatives during the week.

·       Property Services had been successful in a couple of Salix bids from the government.

·       The greening our Waste Strategy had been successful, with the introduction of food waste which had been well used by residents.

·       Recycling rates had increased above target at 58%

·       Overview and Scrutiny Panel had undertaken a review to implement food waste recycling into flats across the borough which would be taken forward.

·       The anti-idling project continued to move forward, and was now at the implementation stage.

·       Work was also being undertaking with taxi drivers and taxi ranks.

·       A number of trees were being planted as part of the Queens Jubilee celebrations

·       The Bracknell Forest Giants took place in the Lexicon in August and gained national interest.

·       A ground source heat pump system was being sought for Westmorland Park.

·       The Panel discussed EV charging points in the last meeting, the council had secured £100k to roll out EV charging points.

·       £160k of funding had been secured to look at cycling and walking plans.

·       There had been15 press stories between April and August 2021.

·       The food truck name video of “Dame Foodie Dench” had been very popular.

·       Hazel maintained a database of 94% of houses across the borough of their energy efficiency ratings across the borough.

·       The Green Deal Community project had run from 2014 – 216 and allowed residents to claim 50% of the money required to pay for energy efficiency projects.

·       The Warfield Park Project 2017-18 had converted 482 park homes to mains gas saving an average of 40% of energy costs for residents. This was the largest undertaking by Cadent gas at the time.

·       The Green Homes Grant Bid 1A delivered 123 retrofit measures to 99 homes and saved residents an average of £300.

·       Flexible Home Improvement Loans were low interest flexible loans for homeowners over 60. Typical works include essential repairs and maintenance and new boilers.

·       The Warm Home Scheme offered gas connection to homes who did not have mains gas. 28 houses had been connected across the Borough.

·       Warm, Self and Well was a Public Health funded project funded over 2 years, The schemes helped those with underline health conditions and provided work such as insulation and boiler replacements.

·       The Green Homes Grant bid 2 was run by the Greater South East Energy Hub and aimed to pay for “fabric first” measures.

·       There was a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

26.

Developers view on Heat Pumps

The Advisory Panel will be joined by Nick Rogers, Design Director at Taylor Wimpey.

Minutes:

Nick Rogers, Design Director for Taylor Wimpey, joined the panel to give a developers view on Heat Pumps.

 

The presentation covered the following highlights:

 

·       Taylor Wimpey had an environment strategy with key targets for climate change. Key targets included reducing operational carbon emissions by 26% by 2025 and reducing carbon emissions from the supply chain and customer homes by 24% by 2030.

·       In the last 8 years operational carbon emissions had already been reduced by 38%.

·       There was a program to increase natural habitats by 10% on new developments.

·       Taylor Wimpy aimed to cut their waste intensity by 15% by 2025 and use more upcycled materials.

·       59% emissions came from the supply chain.

·       40% emissions come from the customer’s home.

·       2021 building regulations were hoped to be released in December, they were promised in 2020,it was expected that PVs would need to be put on all houses, increasing double glazing to triple glazing, install more efficient boilers with flue gas heat recovery, wastewater heat recovery systems, upgrade items around the fabric of the house.

·       In four years time, it was expected the 2025 new build house would also include the air source heat pump, smart heating controls, increased wall insulation and underfloor heating instead of bigger radiators.

·       It was expected that by 2025 EV charging points would be in all homes.

·       Acknowledges that air source heat pumps are a large part of the solution. A lot of work would be required by 2025 to make sure it worked and it could be used successfully

·       Regulations were not expected until 2023 which would give over a year to get ready.

·       Work was already being done with suppliers.

·       There were design issues that needed to be resolved, such as noise issues.

·       Last year there had been 36000 insulation of heat pumps, the increase that the government required would affect the supply chain.

·       Many suppliers required confirmation from the government before they started manufacturing.

·       There was a huge issue with contractors and subcontractors in the industry at present, with people leaving the industry.

·       There were only 916 trained heat pump fitters that needed to increase ten fold by 2025.

·       Grid capacity was an issue.

·       Insulation costs still needed to be confirmed as they varied from £4000 - £10,000.

·       Customer acceptance was also a challenge.

·       Ground source heat pumps were not an option as they were difficult in dense sites.

·       Developers didn’t want to become utility providers.

·       Heat networks were difficult on low density sites.

 

Arising from the group’s questions, the following comments were made:

 

·       Developers were beginning to understand what the end result would be, but were still waiting for the government guidance and regulations to be released. It was difficult to change the houses that were being built at present.

·       Timber looked like the obvious building solution going forward, but there were capacity issues with timber. If all house structure in Europe was turned to timber then there would be issues with supply.

 

27.

Heat Pump Discussion

The Advisory Panel will be joined by Russell Julier, a Consultant Petroleum Engineer.

Minutes:

Russell Julier, a Consultant Petroleum Engineer, joined the meeting to give his views on Heat Pumps and the challenges faced by home heating.

 

Russell’s presentation covered the following points:

 

·       Russell had had a heat pump since the early part of 2021.

·       Russell had started his career with British Gas.

·       CO2 emissions were down by 42% since 2005, the change was how to decarbonised home heating.

·       Each home was emitting over 3 tonnes of CO2.

·       Most of homes in Bracknell Forest (over 80%) were heated by gas or oil which meant 1000s of homes needed to be converted.

·       Home insulation was very important, it was important that our homes were well insulated, this would increase the overall demand on the national grid.

·       Over half our homes needed to be upgraded to an C grading EPC.

·       The options to replace boilers included air and ground sourced heat pumps, storage heaters and thermal batteries which may be useful in some settings.

·       Heat pumps were the governments preferred option, but were currently expensive to install.

·       The pumps used refrigerant technology to extract low grade outside heat to create higher grade heat for home heating and hot water use.

·       The pros that they were very energy efficient.

·       The initial cost was £7500 - £15000.

·       The running costs would be higher and this was the case for Russell.

·       There were additional space requirements, outside there needed to be space for the heat pump and ground loop, inside there needed to be space for a hot water tank and thermal battery.

·       Radiators may need to be changed to improve heat transfer.

·       Russell was estimating that he would use 12,000kwh less per year since having his heat pump installed.

·       The efficiency of his heat pump was 250%.

·       Electric storage heaters were another way of heating a house without a boiler, but would be more expensive to run.

·       Other technologies in development included thermal batteries which were a direct replacement for boilers. These require time of use tariffs to prevent high bills.

 

Arising from the groups comments and questions, the following points were made:

 

·       Having worked in the energy industry it made sense to change to an air sourced heat pump and was involved in a government scheme to get one installed fairly quickly. It also helped with the understanding and effect that it would have on a house and how to get used to the pump.

·       The heat pump was not without its compromises, including the temperature of water.

·       The fabric of the house didn’t have to be amended.

·       The noise of the fan was no louder than the old gas boiler.

 

 

28.

Date of next Meeting

11 January 2022

Minutes:

The date of the next meeting of the Advisory Panel was 11 January 2022

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk