Barratt hopes eco-village will lay the foundations for all new homes

Construction work begins today on Britain’s first official zero-carbon housing development.

The 200 Barratt-built homes at Hanham Hall, a former hospital site in South Gloucestershire, are expected to create the blueprint for future new-build properties, which must all be carbon zero by 2016.

Residents will have allotments and greenhouses, a farm shop selling locally sourced groceries and an on-site biomass boiler. Existing buildings will be adapted for community use and hedgerows, meadows and orchards will be extended.

Involved in the project alongside Barratt are Arup, David Wilson Retirement Homes, HTA Architects, Kingspan Off-Site, GVA Grimley, Sovereign Housing Group and the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA), the quango. Barratt, which was offered the land by the agency at a nominal value, said that it did not yet have an estimated cost for the development, or for the houses when they are built, because such a scheme has not been carried out before. It would not comment on the financial arrangements made with the HCA for the land.
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The Government’s energy efficiency targets have been criticised for putting housebuilders under further cost pressures at a time when they are still reeling from the after-effects of the recession. The industry is obliged to meet only level three of the Government’s code for sustainable homes; the Home Builders Federation has warned that the total extra cost of level six homes — the highest specification, as planned at Hanham Hall — will be £30,000 more than existing new-build prices.

Mark Clare, chief executive of Barratt, said: “The biggest challenge isn’t building zero-carbon homes — it is the cost. They will be prohibitively expensive. The industry has to completely transform itself and invest in research and development. As an industry, we have not had to embrace technology in this way before, so it is a big change.”

The HCA said that it planned to turn a further 95 redundant hospital sites nationwide into 14,000 homes.