This Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) aims to support people in our district to make homes more energy efficient, with less of an impact on the Climate Emergency. It gives guidance on building new property more sustainably, and on adding improvements to existing buildings to make them more environmentally friendly. Your views on the document can help to ensure that this policy takes account of your needs and makes a difference to the quality of rented accommodation.
As a tenant, the guidance in the SPD aims to ensure that if you are living in rented accommodation which is newly built or has had retrofitting (improvements added to an existing building), it should be more energy efficient. This may mean that your home is warmer, and your energy and water bills are lower.
The following parts of the SPD may be of particular interest to you:
The 'Quick Wins' Checklist
This page offers cheap or free tips to help you to make your home more environmentally friendly. This includes:
- Wasting less energy
- Using less water
- Saving and recycling more water
You don't need to own your home to make these changes, and you won't have to get permission from a landlord, planning permission or expert help to install them.
Affordable warmth
This section provides practical guidance and sets out policy to help people on lower incomes, who may find it hard to afford to heat their homes. It aims to raise awareness of fuel poverty among landlords and professionals who deal with the building and letting of homes.