Ideas for Innovative Sustainability strategies for housing developments within North Northants
The Innovation Exchange programme is working alongside Electric Corby Community Interest Company, on a Community Renewal Funded approach for North Northamptonshire Council, to develop a roadmap options programme, on how to get the region to net zero. As part of this, the project has already looked at a wide range of existing projects, but now wants to widen the net to look for any new relevant innovative technologies, enabling initiatives, behavioural change projects and even revolutionary concepts that might be important for delivering net zero before 2050. This challenge is specifically looking for sustainable approaches in delivering new housing developments within the North Northants region.
Opportunity
Challenge opens
07/04/2022
Challenge closes
13/05/2022
Benefit
Successful applicants will have the opportunity to present their ideas to the local authority and potentially work with the project partners to deliver their low carbon initiatives across the region.
Background
North Northamptonshire is made up of a mixture of industrial towns and small rural villages, the region is a desirable area located on key strategic transport routes in the form of the A14 ‘Trans European Route’ (E24) providing linkages to the M1 and M6 as well as to the East Coast ports and the Midland Mainline railway with stations at Wellingborough, Kettering and Corby providing links south to London St Pancras (average journey time 55 minutes from Wellingborough) with onward Eurostar trains, and north to Leicester, Nottingham and beyond.
The area was previously identified by Government through national and regional policy as one of four areas identified to help accommodate the economic success of London and the wider South East by delivering major growth in well-designed communities, supported by substantial investment in infrastructure and services. This designation reflected the area’s proximity and links to London and the South East, its economic potential (including its close relationship to the Oxford to Cambridge Arc).
The towns have good shopping facilities which cater for residents within the towns and surrounding rural locale. This brings many challenges for delivering Net Zero within the region; larger vehicles will potentially need sources for alternative fuels or e-charging combined with larger consumptions of electricity and additional internal network needs that will require chargers for both residents, service vehicles and public transport. Many villages have traditional stone houses and classic brick style buildings through to modern estates with up to date housing standards which will all need to be transitioned towards a net zero carbon future and the region must ensure there is both the facilities, infrastructure and grid capacity to be able to achieve this.