Liberal Democrats Fight to Keep Milton Keynes Carbon-Neutral

1.37.00pm GMT Wed 31st Oct 2007

Milton Keynes Council's Liberal Democrat leader, Isobel McCall, has been left none the wiser following a government response to her letter demanding that the Council should be allowed to keep its flagship policy on tackling climate change. She has vowed to continue the fight until the Council is given certainty that the policy is no longer under threat.

The Liberal Democrat Council introduced a planning rule in 2005 to ensure that all new developments in Milton Keynes are built to carbon-neutral construction standards. It is estimated that, because of the high rate of development in Milton Keynes, this is saving at least 12,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.

Isobel McCall said: "Only last year the Housing Minister was encouraging local authorities to follow the lead taken by Milton Keynes and Merton Councils to introduce sustainable construction planning rules. But last month she appeared to have changed her mind under pressure from the house-building lobby who don't like different planning policies in different areas. It means developers can't build the same bog-standard houses all over the country. The Government was clearly putting the profits of house builders before the environment, in spite of all their fine words about the urgency of tackling climate change."

Following the widespread leaking of a new government policy document that would prohibit planning policies such as those adopted in Milton Keynes, local authorities and environmental groups have been bombarding the Minister with letters of complaint.

Councillor McCall wrote to the Housing Minister on 3 September but has only just received a response. "Unfortunately the letter is very confusing and the Minister neither confirms nor denies that we will be able to keep our existing planning rules," said Councillor McCall. "It looks as if the massive pressure from Milton Keynes and other areas has delivered at least a partial U-turn, but the devil will be in the detail when the Government's planning policy on climate change is published. The Minister's reply talks a lot about Merton, but does not address the details of the Milton Keynes policy. The Milton Keynes policy is much wider as it applies to all sizes of developments, both commercial and housing schemes, and covers energy efficiency as well as renewable energy supply.

"In Milton Keynes we have made a conscious decision to reduce carbon emissions from buildings and we want our homes to be of the highest environmental standards. Developers locally are working within our tough policies so we are making this work on the ground. We don't want it watered down.

"It is rather ironic that it has recently been announced that we have reached the finals of the Green Apple environmental awards for introducing this innovative policy. It was just after that we heard that the policy was under threat from the Government!"